After seeing the Frans Halls Exhibit with the class, I decided to go back and see it for myself when I was at the Museum.  I really liked the way he painted the intricate lace on the bodices of the men and women.  It turns out, I got there too late, and the museum was in the process of dismantling the exhibit.  Instead, I decided to explore the rest of the Flemish works.  I wanted to see where frans Halls fit in in the Dutch art world.  I had been to the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, which is famous for housing the most impressive collection of Dutch work, and I wanted to see how the Metropolitan Museum of Art compares.  The galleries in the Met that house these works are called the Van Eyck, Memling, and Fifteenth-Century Netherlandish Painting galleries.  As we learned, the Dutch are famous for their intricate and highly detailed artwork.

My favorite of these paintings is what appears to be an unfinished altarpiece, whose painter is unknown. It is possible that the painter is Hugo van der Goes.  It is located in gallery 626.  The history behind this odd work is that the figures of the Virgin and Child and St. John were removed and in their place went Henry VII and Elizabeth of York.  Later on, their images were scratched off, and what remains are the original sketches for the Virgin and Child and St. John.  We see the intricate sketching that went into painting the masterpiece.  This altarpiece is fascinating because it shows the painting methods of the early Flemish masters.

I thought the Met had a great collection of these paintings. I was rather pleased that at the end of my visit that the Museum stands up to its rival in Amsterdam.