Saints, Sinners, Lovers and Fools: Three Hundred Years of Flemish Masterworks

Some of the most innovative and outlandish art produced in Europe between 1400 and 1700 came from the hands of Flemish artists. Based mainly on loans from the Phoebus Foundation in Antwerp, this remarkable exhibition at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts features some of the usual suspects – chiefly Rubens, Anthony van Dyck and Jan Breughel the Elder – alongside some lesser known painters and draughtsmen (8 June–20 October). The show, which is organised chronologically, aims to demonstrate how Flemish art and society shifted over the period. Highlights include grotesque portraits by Jan Massys and Jan Sanders van Hemessen, an absurdist bust of a lady with a skull for a head by Catarina Ykens II, an extravagant view of the Garden of Eden by Hendrick de Clerck, and some lush still lifes by Frans Snyders and others.

Find out more from the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts’s website.

Preview below | View Apollo’s Art Diary

The Nativity (c. 1480), Hans Memling and Workshop. Photo: © The Phoebus Foundation, Antwerp

Diana Hunting with Her Nymphs (c. 1636–37), Peter Paul Rubens. Photo: © The Phoebus Foundation, Antwerp

A Pantry with Game (c. 1640), Frans Snyders. Photo: © The Phoebus Foundation, Antwerp