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Centre for the Study of the Flemish Primitives

Royal Institute for Cultural Heritage

The Centre for the Study of the Flemish Primitives is a specialized research unit at the documentation department of the belgian Royal Institute for Cultural Heritage, a scientific institution of the belgian Federal Science Policy. It has its own library and a vast collection of over 35.000 photographs.

The Study Centre, created in 1949, is specialised in fifteenth-century painting of the Southern Netherlands. It has developed into the initiator of international research on the 'Flemish Primitives'.

Its objective is three-fold:

  • to collect art historical documentation
  • to carry out and encourage scientific research
  • to produce three series of publications

The Study Centre welcomes the specialised researcher as well as the non-professional art historian.

Practical information:

Free entrance and accessible to wheelchair users. The documents can be consulted in the reading room, no borrowing allowed.

Where: Royal Institute for Cultural Heritage (KIK/IRPA), Jubelpark 1, 1000 Brussels (entrance located on the Renaissancelaan)
When: Monday through Friday from 9h00 until 12h30 and from 13h30 until 17h00

Person Responsible: Dr. Bart Fransen
Contact: bart.fransen@kikirpa.be
Telephone: 02/ 739 68 66
Website