Vogelvluchtaanzicht op het Minnebroedersklooster, 1544 1729

This is an anonymous engraving from 1544 offering a bird’s-eye view of the Minnebroedersklooster, or Friars Minor Monastery. Notice the garden meticulously laid out, a square within the monastery walls, replete with rows of trees. Gardens have long symbolized paradise, a return to Eden before the fall of man, appearing in countless illuminated manuscripts, tapestries, and paintings across the ages. From the Hortus Conclusus, the enclosed garden symbolizing the Virgin Mary's purity, to the Garden of Love, the garden is both a physical and psychological space. The monastic garden here is not merely for sustenance, but a symbol of spiritual contemplation and detachment from the temporal world. The birds in flight above serve to remind us that this pursuit of transcendence is a deeply rooted aspiration. They echo the soul’s yearning for liberation, forever striving to ascend beyond earthly bounds, a timeless dance between the tangible and the ethereal.