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In the Bonnefanten Museum, an iconic building in Maastricht designed by the Italian architect Aldo Rossi, Old Masters rub shoulders with modern and contemporary art. The museum grew from a desire to bring together art from the environs – not just works by artists from the city and surrounding districts, but also more widely, with a focus on the cross-border area known as “Euregio.” The collection includes about eighty paintings and fifty sculptures produced in the Low Countries.
The museum owns the largest collection of sculptures by the early sixteenth-century Maastricht sculptor Jan van Steffeswert, as well as work by the “Master of Elsloo,” who also worked in the surrounding region, and a fine collection of sculptures from the Maas and Rhine region. In addition, the Neutelings Collection includes sculptures made in Mechelen, Brussels, and Antwerp.
The painting collection is representative for Euregio, with a predominance of Dutch painting. The “long” sixteenth century is particularly well represented here, with work by artists such as Colijn de Coter, the Master of 1518, Pieter Coecke van Aelst, the Brueghel “family firm,” Anthony van Dyck, and Rubens. As for the seventeenth century, there are paintings by Henri de Fromantiou (who was born in Maastricht), along with Roelant Savery, Cornelis de Vos, and Melchior d’Hondecoeter.
Jip van Reijen, Curator of Old Masters (May 2023)