Step into a world where saints ascend to heaven, lovers exchange tender glances, and fools dance through life with abandon. This winter, the Peabody Essex Museum (PEM) invites visitors to experience an unprecedented collection of Flemish masterworks that transformed European art forever.
Opening December 14, 2024, “Saints, Sinners, Lovers, and Fools: 300 Years of Flemish Masterworks” showcases approximately 130 rarely-seen treasures from The Phoebus Foundation and 60 complementary pieces from PEM’s collection. This exclusive East Coast presentation offers an intimate look at one of art history’s most innovative and influential periods.
A Revolutionary Artistic Movement
During the Renaissance, Flanders emerged as a powerhouse of artistic innovation. As Antwerp’s port flourished into Northern Europe’s premier trading hub, the region experienced unprecedented wealth and cultural exchange. This prosperity sparked the first commercial art market in European history, forever changing how art was created, sold, and appreciated.
The exhibition features masterpieces by legendary artists, including:
- Peter Paul Rubens
- Anthony van Dyck
- Hans Memling
- Jan Gossaert
- Clara Peeters
- Jacob Jordaens
- Michaelina Wautier
From Divine to Human: Art’s Evolution
Sacred Devotion
The exhibition begins with stunning religious artworks that once adorned Catholic churches. These pieces reflect a time when faith offered solace amid wars and plagues, showing public devotion and intimate personal worship through paintings, sculptures, and manuscripts.
New Ways of Seeing
Visitors will discover how Flemish artists revolutionized landscape and still-life painting. They created works with unprecedented depth and luminosity through innovative oil painting techniques. The exhibition features an exclusive highlight: an intricately carved 17th-century Flemish cabinet from the van Otterloo collection.
Portraits of Power
As wealth spread beyond royalty, a new middle class emerged, seeking to immortalize their success. The exhibition’s portrait section reveals how merchants, politicians, and scholars used art to construct identity and legacy in an increasingly mobile society.
Classical Imagination
The exhibition’s centerpiece is Rubens’ spectacular “Diana Hunting with her Nymphs,” commissioned by Spanish King Philip IV. This masterwork exemplifies how Flemish artists reimagined classical mythology for contemporary audiences.
A Window to the World
The exhibition concludes with a fascinating recreation of a 17th-century wünderkammer (cabinet of curiosities). This immersive installation demonstrates how wealthy Flemish collectors sought to capture the world in miniature, displaying everything from exotic porcelain to preserved specimens.
“These diverse works reflect the faith, ambitions, and curiosity of the Flemish people,” notes Karina H. Corrigan, PEM’s Associate Director of Collections. “The astonishing immediacy of these compositions continues to resonate with viewers more than 500 years after they were painted.”
Plan Your Visit
Exhibition Dates: December 14, 2024 – May 4, 2025 Location: Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, MA Additional Resources: Exhibition book “From Memling To Rubens: The Golden Age of Flanders” available in the PEM Shop
Follow the exhibition journey on social media using #SaintsSinnersatPEM
This groundbreaking exhibition is co-organized by the Denver Art Museum and The Phoebus Foundation, Antwerp, Belgium, with support from the Richard C. von Hess Foundation, The Lee and Juliet Folger Fund, and other generous donors.
Peabody Essex Museum
View their Member Listing
The mission of the Peabody Essex Museum is to celebrate outstanding artistic and cultural creativity by collecting, stewarding and interpreting objects of art and culture in ways that increase knowledge, enrich the spirit, engage the mind and stimulate the senses. Through its exhibitions, programs, publications, media and related activities, PEM strives to create experiences that transform people’s lives by broadening
SEE LISTING
