Museum of Ancient Art in Brussels. Museum Oude Kunst Brussel. Musée art ancien Bruxelles.

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BRUSSELS : Museum of Ancient Art

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vanderweyden3515.jpg (25259 bytes) This museum lies next to the Museum of modern art. Together they are called "The Museum of Fine Arts". This museum harbours a splendid collection of paintings from both the low countries and the world. In the entrance hall several sculptures can be seen of Belgian and international sculptors (for instance: Meunier, Lambeau, Rodin, etc.) The main accent, however, lies on the collection of old masters with its 1200 paintings.On the first floor are the masterpieces of the 15th and 16th century. Among the famous names are: the master of Flémalle, Rogier van der Weyden, the master of Aix, Barend van Orley, Dirk Bouts, Hieronymus Bosch, Lucas Cranach and Quentin Metsys.
ROGIER VAN DER WEYDEN (1399/1400 - 1464) The lamentation of Christ (Inv. 3515)
© and reproduced with permission of the Koninklijke Musea voor Schone Kunsten Brussel

bruegel4030.jpg (20951 bytes) The pride of the museum is of course the Bruegel collection, of which the "Landscape with the fall of Icarus" is considered to be one of the seven wonders of Belgium". This is one of the masterpieces of the Brussels Museum. One can see here a 'world-landscape', beautifully developed by the painter. In it can be seen references to Italy (Bruegel visited this country), references to the Flemish landscapes, and the sea landscapes. The fall of Icarus is actually only a detail on this painting. When looking clearly, one can see the legs of the drowning Icarus, after he fell out of the sky when his wax wings melted because of the heat of the sun. Did Bruegel want to tell us that human aspirations mean nothing at all in the great scheme of things ?

PIETER BRUEGEL THE ELDER (1527/1528? - 1569) Landscape with the fall of Icarus (Inv. 4030)
© and reproduced with permission of the Koninklijke Musea voor Schone Kunsten Brussel

vanorley1454.jpg (13817 bytes) In another part of the museum the Rubens collection can be seen (The Ascent to Calvary, The Martyrdom of Saint Lievin, etc.), as well as works by other famous painters from the 17th century like Jordaens, Teniers, Van Dijck. Present is also a beautiful collection of 17th century Dutch paintings. The lower level is taken in by the collection of the 19th century (from realism and the Free society of the fine arts, to the symbolism of the 1890s).

BAREND VAN ORLEY( ca 1492-1542) Portrait of Joris van Zelle(doctor in Brussels) at the age of 28 years - 1519 (Inv. 1454)
© and reproduced with permission of the Koninklijke Musea voor Schone Kunsten Brussel

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About Flemish painting.

The Flemish-Dutch painters, had unified themselves in powerful guilds in the 15th century. They made the different cities in the low countries into centers of European Art. They mostly worked on wooden panels. After having made the representation on the panel, they applied the colourful paint. Through this procedure thin layers of unmixed, pure mineral paint were applied on top of each other. These 'optically' mixed colours gave their work a unique depth as can be seen in the works of Van Eyck, Rogier van der Weyden, Dirk Bouts, Hugo van der Goes, Petrus Christus, Gerard David and Hans Memling. They also started to experiment with perspective. In many of the earliest works of the 15th century it is obvious that they had not reached perfection in this matter. Also the setting of the (mostly) religious scenes started to change. Before, until the beginning of the 15th century, most religious scenes were set against a coloured background. In the first decades of the 15th century, more and more, the divine personae were painted against a contemporary and very realistic background (such as : typical Flemish landscapes, typical gothic living-rooms and church interiors).

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