Information
From the late fifteenth century for some considerable time, Spain and the Netherlands were under the joint rule of the Habsburg dynasty. This placed the Spanish monarchs in an ideal position from which to build up a collection of paintings from this region and to become patrons of Flemish artists. Consequently, the Museo del Prado has a superlative collection of Flemish paintings.
Among its fifteenth-century paintings, the museum has The Descent from the Cross by Rogier van der Weyden (ca. 1399–1464), one of the great canonical works of the history of European art. The Prado also holds the largest existing collection of works by Hieronymus Bosch (ca. 1450–1516), largely acquired a few decades after the artist’s death by King Philip II. Turning to the early sixteenth century, the museum has four landscapes by Joachim Patinir (ca. 1480–1524) – here too, the largest existing collection of his works.
The towering figure of seventeenth-century Flemish painting was Rubens (1577–1640), who became the most celebrated artist in Europe and was the favorite painter of Philip IV of Spain. The Museo del Prado possesses the largest collection of his works, at just over ninety paintings (the exact figure depends on the resolution of certain attributions). It also possesses an extraordinary range of paintings by Pieter Bruegel the Elder (ca. 1525–1569) and most notably his son Jan Brueghel the Elder (1568–1625), Jordaens (1593–1678), Clara Peeters (1587?–after 1636), and Anthony van Dyck (1599–1641).
Alejandro Vergara, Senior Curator of Flemish and Northern European Paintings (March 2024)
Related CODART publications
Liselore Tissen, “3D Printing Works of Art: An Opportunity or Nightmare for Curators?”, CODARTfeatures, October 2022.
Dr. Teresa Posada Kubissa, “Dutch Painting in the Spanish Royal Collections”, CODARTfeatures, March 2011.