Museum Hof van Busleyden

Museum Hof van Busleyden is housed in the city palace of Hieronymus van Busleyden (ca. 1470-1517), who was a prominent judge and diplomat in the service of Charles V, Duke of Burgundy. In the museum, dedicated to the Renaissance in the Low Countries and its significance today, visitors can discover the Burgundian-Habsburg Netherlands and the important role that the city of Mechelen, as capitol of the duchy, played in the fifteenth and sixteenth century.

The museum houses a large collection of Northern Renaissance art. Highlights are the seven small devotional Enclosed Gardens altarpieces from the late fifteenth and early sixteenth century that belonged to the Hospital of Our Lady in Mechelen. Also on view are the ‘Mechelen Choirbook’ (ca. 1515) from the workshop of Petrus Alamire, a tapestry based on cartoons by Jan Cornelisz. Vermeyen depicting the capture of the Tunis port of La Goleta by the troops of Charles V, and a diverse collection of alabaster sculptures.

Museum Hof van Busleyden also manages eight historical churches in Mechelen that contain in situ early fifteenth century murals, sculptures by Lucas Faydherbe, and altarpieces by painters such as Michiel Coxie, Hans Vredeman de Vries, Anthony van Dyck and Peter Paul Rubens. These artworks reflect the city’s role as the center of the Catholic church in Belgium and the Southern Netherlands since 1559.

Dr. Samuel Mareel, Chief Curator (November 2021)