Dog Accompanying Bathing Ladies In ‘t Zand Square Fountain – Bruges, Belgium
Posted by: 
dtrebilc
N 51° 12.290 E 003° 13.069
31U E 515216 N 5672625
These nude female figures, accompanied by a large dog form one of four groups of figurative sculptures surrounding a large fountain in the middle of the square.
Waymark Code: WMFEVM
Location: West-Vlaanderen, Belgium
Date Posted: 10/08/2012
Views: 12
‘t Zand is the largest public square in Bruges. It is situated where the old railway station used to be. It is used as an open air market at weekends and as a venue as an open air concert site.
In the middle of the square is thie large fountain with 4 separate sculptures by the husband and wife sculptors Stefaan De Puydt and Livia Canestraro.
This sculpture of 4 bathing ladies represents the main Flemish Cities of Bruges, Ghent, Antwerp and Kortrijk.
Next to one of the females is a dog. I cannot find any direct reference to this, but there is a herding breed of dog known as
Bouvier des Flandres and also a novel called
A Dog of Flanders partly set in Antwerp. The dog in the sculpture may represent either of these. According to the web site about Bouvier des Flandres dogs it is thought that this is the breed of the dog in the novel. The sculpture looks a lot less hairy than a Bouvier des Flandres, but maybe the sculptors did not know what one looked like.