Information from the press release, 13 February 2014
The Amsterdam Museum and Stedelijk Museum Alkmaar jointly organize a grand exhibition around Jacob Cornelisz van Oostsanen (1470-1533). Five centuries after his glorious career, tens of his works return to the Netherlands. This corpus of works will show how Van Oostsanen with his works of extremely high quality helped laying the foundations for the later flourishing of Dutch painting. Van Oostsanen: the first Dutch Master will be on display spread over three locations in Alkmaar and Amsterdam.
Van Oostsanen’s works have spread throughout the world over the ages. Loans for this exhibition come from New York (Metropolitan Museum of Art), Toledo (Toledo Museum of Art), Antwerp (Royal Museum of Fine Arts) and prints from collections such as the British Museum in London and the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam. The latter museum loans a total of more then 50 works, also paintings, and as such is one of the major contributors to the exhibition. An exquisite loan comes from Naples (Museo di Capodimonte), The Nativity with the Boelen family as donors. This painting will be restores for this occasion.
The exhibition will be shown in three locations. In the Stedelijk Museum Alkmaar a nearly complete art historical survey of the life and works of the painter will be given with paintings, drawings, stained glass and other objects. The Amsterdam Museum focuses on Amsterdam around the year 1500. Van Oostsanen’s workshop will also play a prominent role here. In the St. Laurenskerk in Alkmaar, the vault paintings, made by Van Oostsanen for that church will be on view.