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The Royal Museum of Fine Arts in Antwerp (KMSKA) is closed for renovations until 2019. For this reason, the museum's rich collection is placed on loan for various museums within and outside of Belgium. An important set of 21 paintings will soon be exhibited in the Mauritshuis in The Hague.
Already since July, the painting The Old Folks Sing, the Young Folks Chirp (1638) by Jacob Jordaens has been present in the Mauritshuis in The Hague. It engages in a unique dialogue with the thematically related As the Old Sing, So Pipe the Young (1668-1670) by Jan Steen from the collection of the Mauritshuis. Steen brings in a few motifs of his colleague Jordaens, such as the bagpipes player and the grandmother with the small pince-nez spectacles. Both paintings show how children imitate their parents and also possibly warn one against the dangers of a poor upbringing.
On 7 September, the exhibition Neighbours: Portraits from Flanders 1400-1700 opens. The exhibition originated in collaboration with the KMSKA. A selection of the best portraits of the KMSKA is shown along with the portraits from the Mauritshuis and the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam.
Members of the nobility and wealthy citizens readily allowed themselves to be immortalised by the best Flemish artists of their time. An object of investigation is who are the people in the portraits and how they allowed themselves to be painted.
Already since the Flemish Primitives in the 15th century, the portrait causes a commotion in the Southern Netherlands. This also is apparent in the exhibit. Thus travels the precious portrait of Philippe de Croy by Rogier van der Weyden to The Hague. Also, Hans Memling's unparalleled portrait of Bernardo Bembo shall be able to be viewed at our neighbour's to the North. The privileged visitor shall be able to see that portrait closeby Memling's Portrait of a Man from the Mauritshuis collection. Characteristic for Memling's both portraits is the rich background landscape.
The portrait also remained immensely popular during the Baroque. Portraits by Peter Paul Rubens, Anthony van Dyck, Cornelis de Vos, Gonzales Coques, Michaelina Wautier and others shall be present. Especially for this exhibition the portrait of Abraham Grapheus by Cornelis de Vos was restored. It will now be exhibited for the first time again since the restoration. When he was Dean, De Vos gifted his portrait in 1620 to the guild chamber of the Antwerp Saint Luke's guild.
Beginning 9 November, the exquisite Calvary by Antonello da Messina (KMSKA collection) shall be on view in the Prince Willem V Gallery of the Buitenhof in The Hague. After masterpieces by Caravaggio, Titian, Velázquez and Mantegna, it is the 15th-century painter Da Messina's turn (1430-1479). Typical for this Sicilian painter is that he allows himself to be inspired by the so-called Flemish Primitives.
More info
Website Mauritshuis
Website KMSKA
(News Item August 31, 2017)