Bruegel to Rubens at the Queen's Gallery

Masters of Flemish Painting at Buckingham Palace, London

Oct 17, 2008

Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II has a world-class collection of Flemish paintings. This exhibition features 51 masterpieces from the 15th, 16th and 17th centuries.

Bruegel to Rubens: Masters of Flemish Painting is the first ever showing of the Flemish masterpieces in the Royal Collection. The display includes a self-portrait by Sir Peter Paul Rubens together with three of his greatest landscape paintings. The exhibition also features works by Sir Anthony van Dyck, Dionys Calvaert, Paulus Bril, Quinten Massys, Hans Memling and many others. Highlights of the show include Massacre of the Innocents by Pieter Bruegel the Elder, The Three Children of Christian II of Denmark by Jan Gossaert and Frans Francken the Younger's Cabinet of a Collector.

Historical Background

In the 1550s the city of Antwerp was home to some of Europe's finest painters who enjoyed the patronage of a large, wealthy middle class. However, the region's infrastructure and creative industries were almost wiped out during the Eighty Years War with Spain (1568 to 1648). The paintings featured in this exhibition were created during this period and immediately afterwards and come mostly from the Southern (Spanish-ruled) Netherlands.

This self-portrait by Rubens has an intriguing inscription: "Petrus Paullus Rubens /se ipsum expressit/A.D. MDCXXIII/Aetatis Suae XXXXV". This was how Peter Paul Rubens described himself in the year 1623, aged 45. The objects in the background could be described as 'a rock and a reddening sky'. In Latin this would read 'Petrus et caelum rubens'. Perhaps Rubens included this inscription as a play on his own name.

Massacre of the Innocents (1565-7), by Pieter Bruegel the Elder (1525/30- ca.1569), appears at first glance to a peaceful scene of a village under snow. In reality it is far from serene. According to St Matthew's Gospel, Herod, on hearing of the birth of the King of the Jews, decreed that all newborn boys must be slaughtered. Bruegel puts the story in the contemporary setting of the hard winter of 1564-5. In 1604 the painting, owned by the Holy Roman Emperor Rudolph II, was recorded in an inventory as a massacre. By 1621 it had changed to a scene of general plunder and the murdered infants had been painted over!

'Encyclopaedic' Paintings - a New Fashion

Another highlight of this exhibition is Cabinet of a Collector (1617), by Frans Francken the Younger (1581-1642). There was a fashion at the time for keeping a separate room full of curiosities, in this case, artworks and nature specimens. These 'encyclopaedic' paintings became a way of displaying the collections. The paintings featured a mass of detail, almost to the point of eccentricity.

Visual Trickery?

During the 16th century Flemish artists used a number of visual techniques, to enhance the relationship between viewer and sitter. For example, in The Three Children of Christian II of Denmark (1526), painted by Jan Gossaert (also known as Mabuse, ca. 1475-1533), the artist creates a three-dimensional affect by using an inner frame with the children positioned front of it.

To accompany the exhibition the Royal Collection has published a fully illustrated catalogue written by Desmond Shawe-Taylor, Surveyor of the Queen's Pictures and Jennifer Scott, Assistant Curator of Paintings at the Royal Collection.

Breugel to Rubens: Masters of Flemish Painting runs from 17 October 2008 until 26 April 2009. Full details can be obtained from The Royal Collection at The Queen's Gallery, Buckingham Palace.

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