CODART, Dutch and Flemish art in museums worldwide

Drama and Tenderness. Flemish, Spanish and Italian Art of the Baroque

Exhibition: 10 November 2017 - 31 December 2019

The National Museum of History and Art (MNHA) is honored to present the exceptional exhibition Drama and Tenderness – Flemish, Spanish and Italian Art of the Baroque. It is a common imitative of the Royal Museum of Fine Arts Antwerp and the MNHA in collaboration with two prestigious European private collections. On this occasion, the MNHA also unveils two important recent donations by the La Marck Foundation.

Displayed in three rooms, the more than 30 works of the exhibition highlight the link between different baroque artists and their place of birth as well as the multitude of interregional and international influences they were under. It focuses on the long overlooked similarities between Flemish art on one hand and Spanish and Italian art on the other. Highlighting the dramatic nature of a scene and representing poetic feelings through the harmony of colours are two, often opposed, tendencies that are masterly represented in the exhibition. The hanging provides a glimpse of the new permanent presentation at the Royal Museum of Fine Arts Antwerp that will reopen its doors in 2019.

Jan Davidsz. de Heem (1606-1684), Flowers and insects, ca. 1660-1665
The Royal Museum of Fine Arts, Antwerp