Floor plan

Time and placeFlanders

Flanders

A Genoese Lady with Her Child, by Anthony van Dyck, c. 1623–25
A work made of engraving in black on cream laid paper.
A work made of red and black chalk, with touches of white chalk, on cream laid paper.
The image shows a wide aerial view of a public gathering. Buildings line the horizon overlooking the scene below. The detailed illustration features various individuals and animals in motion, including groups of people, horse riders, and carts. The monochromatic color palette contributes to a classic aesthetic.
An older man at left in red raises his hat toward a central table chaotically overflowing with dead game, fruits, and vegetables. The wings of dead birds and limbs of animals are splayed out at dramatic angles; a deer at center is suspended by his back legs. Live birds and a cat animate the scene.
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.

The works in this room are listed below.

Works in this room

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

First room, north wall

  1. A Genoese Lady with Her Child, by Anthony van Dyck, c. 1623–25
    A Genoese Lady with Her ChildAnthony van Dyck, c. 1623–25Courtesy of the Cleveland Museum of Art
  2. A work made of engraving in black on cream laid paper.
    Christ on the CrossRaphael Sadeler, I, 1590Courtesy of the Art Institute of Chicago
  3. A work made of red and black chalk, with touches of white chalk, on cream laid paper.
    Nude Old Man Seated, Leaning on His Forearm, Facing LeftJacob Jordaens, c. 1640Courtesy of the Art Institute of Chicago
  4. The image shows a wide aerial view of a public gathering. Buildings line the horizon overlooking the scene below. The detailed illustration features various individuals and animals in motion, including groups of people, horse riders, and carts. The monochromatic color palette contributes to a classic aesthetic.
    Piazza Presso alla Porta al PratoEdouard Eckman, 1621Courtesy National Gallery of Art, Washington

First room, south wall

  1. An older man at left in red raises his hat toward a central table chaotically overflowing with dead game, fruits, and vegetables. The wings of dead birds and limbs of animals are splayed out at dramatic angles; a deer at center is suspended by his back legs. Live birds and a cat animate the scene.
    Still Life with Dead Game, Fruits, and Vegetables in a MarketFrans Snyders, 1614Courtesy of the Art Institute of Chicago
  2. 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

Second room, south wall

  1. A work made of oil on panel.
    The Flight into EgyptAbraham Jansz. van Diepenbeeck, c. 1650Courtesy of the Art Institute of Chicago
  2. A Mill with a Fortified Bridge, a Rowing Boat in the Foreground, by Roelandt Savery, 1596–1639
    A Mill with a Fortified Bridge, a Rowing Boat in the ForegroundRoelandt Savery, 1596–1639Courtesy of The Metropolitan Museum of Art
  3. A work made of pen and brown ink, with traces of black chalk, on cream laid paper.
    Head of MedusaGodfried Maes, 1680Courtesy of the Art Institute of Chicago
  4. 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

Second room, north wall

  1. Pomegranates and Other Fruit in a Landscape, by Abraham Brueghel
    Pomegranates and Other Fruit in a LandscapeAbraham BrueghelCourtesy of The Metropolitan Museum of Art
  2. A Bouquet of Flowers, by Clara Peeters, ca. 1612
    A Bouquet of FlowersClara Peeters, ca. 1612Courtesy of The Metropolitan Museum of Art
  3. 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
  4. Guardroom with the Deliverance of Saint Peter, by David Teniers the Younger, ca. 1645–47
    Guardroom with the Deliverance of Saint PeterDavid Teniers the Younger, ca. 1645–47Courtesy of The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Third room, north wall

  1. Portrait of King Louis XIII of France, by Frans Pourbus, 1611
    Portrait of King Louis XIII of FranceFrans Pourbus, 1611Courtesy of the Cleveland Museum of Art
  2. The Rabbit Hunt, by Pieter Bruegel, 1560
    The Rabbit HuntPieter Bruegel, 1560Courtesy of the Cleveland Museum of Art