A celebration of Hans Memlinc. (painter)

FEW cities have changed so little since the Middle Ages as Bruges, perpetuated within its canals by its silent lanes and bridges, the hush of its hospital and beguinage, and the murmured transactions of the belfry-shadowed Groote Markt. The ghost of Hans Memlinc, who died there five hundred years ago this month, would have no difficulty in finding its way around the entranced and entrancing Belgian city. High lone towers still rise from the Flemish plain: the belfry itself, the Cathedral of the Divine Saviour, and the Church of Our Lady. In the heat of the summer the citizens, as…