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Flanders

Works made in Flanders, from every century in the collection.

53 works · hang 2956 ·

The rooms are imagined; every work on their walls is real.

Walk this roomRehang this room

First room, north wall

  1. A work made of engraving in black on cream laid paper.
    The Carnival (or the Prodigal Son)Jan Sadeler, I, 1588Courtesy of the Art Institute of Chicago
  2. We look slightly down onto a scene with people gathering in small groups in a cobblestone town square lined with rows of brick, wood, and stone buildings, many with stepped rooflines, in this horizontal painting. Singly or in pairs or trios, men, women, and children walk across the square, move goods around, or talk to merchants. All the people have light skin. Many of the men have mustaches and wear hats, and some carry swords. In tones of black, olive green, brick red, and plum purple, they wear hip-length cloaks over jackets, with white collars or ruffs and brass buttons, and knee-length breeches over yellow or black stockings. The women all wear long dresses in salmon pink, coral red, or golden yellow, with white collars or ruffs, and many wear black, ankle-length cloaks, some with hoods. Closest to us, a sumptuously dressed man and woman walk toward us while another similarly elegant couple walks away. Also facing away from us, to our left, a man wearing a large drum strapped around his waist raises one drumstick as he looks over his left shoulder. Nearby, a woman peers up out of a cellar door that opens on an angle to the street. More couples gather around a well across the square, and two women and a child talk to a third woman selling wares at a wooden table to our right. A pair of hooded priests or monks walk near a man blowing on a trumpet on horseback. The buildings are mostly shades of brick red and brown, and most have three or four stories with steeply pitched roofs. More people walk along side streets leading off the main square. One gap in the buildings across from us leads to a nickel-gray stone church with a pointed spire and square tower. A grassy, green hill rises steeply beyond the buildings to our right, leading down to a waterway that extends up and away into the distance. A few boats float in the water, which reflects the leaden-gray sky. Beyond the town square, a brown stone structure like a fortress with turret towers and crenellated walls looms along the ridge of the hill to our right. Tiny in scale, people on horseback and tending sheep dot the hillside below. The date “1590” is painted on the front of one of the buildings across from us while another date, “1597,” is painted on the end of a short wall near the lower left corner.
    The Marketplace in Bergen op ZoomAbel Grimmer, probably 1590 and 1597Courtesy National Gallery of Art, Washington
  3. A work made of pen and brown ink and brush and black and green washes, over black chalk, on cream laid paper.
    Interior View of the ColiseumLodewijk Toeput, c. 1580Courtesy of the Art Institute of Chicago
  4. A work made of engraving on ivory laid paper.
    Landscape with Sheep, from The Small LandscapesSchelte Adamsz. Bolswert, c. 1638Courtesy of the Art Institute of Chicago

First room, south wall

  1. The Cathedral, by James Ensor, 1886
    The CathedralJames Ensor, 1886Courtesy of the Cleveland Museum of Art
  2. A work made of engraving on ivory laid paper.
    Fides, plate 1 from The Seven VirtuesHieronymous Wierix, c. 1598Courtesy of the Art Institute of Chicago
  3. Ceres and Bacchus, by Bartholomaeus Spranger, 1600s
    Ceres and BacchusBartholomaeus Spranger, 1600sCourtesy of the Cleveland Museum of Art
  4. A work made of red chalk on ivory laid paper.
    Sketches of a Lute Player and LuteJan Anton Garemyn, 1756Courtesy of the Art Institute of Chicago

Second room, south wall

  1. The Rabbit Hunt, by Pieter Bruegel, 1560
    The Rabbit HuntPieter Bruegel, 1560Courtesy of the Cleveland Museum of Art
  2. Queen Henrietta Maria, by Anthony van Dyck, 1636
    Queen Henrietta MariaAnthony van Dyck, 1636Courtesy of The Metropolitan Museum of Art
  3. Portrait of Isabella Brant, by Peter Paul Rubens, c. 1620–25
    Portrait of Isabella BrantPeter Paul Rubens, c. 1620–25Courtesy of the Cleveland Museum of Art
  4. A sprig of flowering rosemary lying against an ivory-white background and the twelve insects that surround it fills this horizontal painting. Stretching nearly the length of the composition with the cut end to our left, the rosemary has blunted, needle-like, gently curling teal-green leaves and small periwinkle-blue flowers along the ash-brown stem. Several insects perch on the sprig while others are seen as if looking from overhead, resting on the white background. The three largest insects perch along the top of the sprig, with an ivory-white butterfly with moss-green and black markings to the left, a black and golden, fuzzy bumblebee near the center, and a lemon-yellow butterfly with red antennae to our right. A tiny red insect, perhaps a ladybug without spots, sits on a leaf between the bee and yellow butterfly, and a small wasp-like insect rests on a leaf in at the lower left. Another mosquito-like insect alights on the surface nearby, next to a beetle with a honey-orange body with black, almost tiger-like stripes. A large cockroach sitting near the lower right corner has six spindly legs, a mahogany-colored abdomen, a black thorax, and tiny, black head. Spaced somewhat evenly across the top of the panel are a brick-red, winged insect to the left, a mint-green, beetle-like bug near a moth patterned with bone white and black, and a black, fly-like insect to our right. Lit from the upper left, the rosemary and insects cast shadows on the surface. The artist signed and dated the work with gray in the lower left corner: “J v. kessel . . f. Ao 1653.”
    Insects and a Sprig of RosemaryJan van Kessel the Elder, 1653Courtesy National Gallery of Art, Washington

Second room, north wall

  1. A work made of engraving on paper.
    Spes, plate 2 from The Seven VirtuesHieronymous Wierix, c. 1598Courtesy of the Art Institute of Chicago
  2. 1901-39-151-a: DEER HUNT WITH HOUNDS [ABOVE]; SKYLARK HUNT WITH FALCONS [BELOW]; 1901-39-151-b: GOOSE AND DUCK HUNT WITH FALCONS [ABOVE RIGHT]; GOOSE HUNT [BELOW RIGHT]
    Goose and Duck Hunt with Falcons [above right]; Goose Hunt [below right]Jan van der Straet, called Stradanus, ca. 1596-99Courtesy of Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum

Third room, north wall

  1. A nearly nude, muscular man with pale, peachy skin sits in an underground cave among seven male and two female lions in this horizontal painting. The man sits to our right of center with his legs crossed, elbows close to his body with hands clasped by his chest. His head tips back to look up through a small opening above. He has long, wavy, chestnut-brown hair and dark eyes. A white cloth wraps across his hips, and he sits on a scarlet-red swath of fabric draped up over a rock next to him. The nine lions stalk, sit, or lie down around the man. One male lion next to the man, to our left, opens his mouth with his head thrown back, curling tongue extended beyond long fangs. A human skull and other bones are strewn on the dirt ground close to us. The rocky cave curves up around the animals and man to a narrow, round opening showing blue sky above.
    Daniel in the Lions' DenPeter Paul Rubens, c. 1614/1616Courtesy National Gallery of Art, Washington
  2. Lucas van Uffel (died 1637), by Anthony van Dyck, ca. 1622
    Lucas van Uffel (died 1637)Anthony van Dyck, ca. 1622Courtesy of The Metropolitan Museum of Art