Ghent Alterpiece is Flanders’ favourite painting

The Ghent Altarpiece or the Adoration of the Mystic Lamb,iis a very large and complex 15th-century Early Flemish polyptych altarpiece in St Bavo's Cathedral, attributed to the brothers Hubert and Jan van Eyck. It is considered a masterpiece of European art and one of the world's treasures.

Second in Culture Club’s pop poll of paitings is The Empire of Light (photo above). The Empire of Light is a series of three oil on canvas paintings by René Magritte painted between 1949 and 1954.

They depict the paradoxical image of a nighttime street, lit only by a single street light, beneath a daytime sky. Magritte drew his inspiration fort he paiting from the work of John Atkinson Grimshaw, an English painter who delighted in painting urban views at sunset.[

The Ostend (West Flanders) painter with English roots James Ensor’s 1890 painting "Intrige" came in third. "Intrige"(photo above)is a typical sober work by one of our best-known and best-loved artists.

Fourth in the list of Flanders’ favourite paintings is Dull Gret. The 1562 oil panel Dull Gret also known as Mad Meg by Pieter Bruegel the Elder features a figure of Flemish folklore .

The painting depicts a virago, Dull Get, who leads an army of women to pillage Hell,[1] and is currently held and exhibited at the Museum Mayer van den Bergh in Antwerp.

The big surprise in the top 5 is the Ostend artist Leon Spillaert’s 1908 painting “Duizeling" (Dizziness (see photo bellow)The work is typical of the artist who suffered from chronic insomnia and often spend the night wandering about Ostend where he draw inspiration for his work.

The painting is of its time, fitting in perfectly with period of jugendstil and art nouveau.