After the overwhelming success in Denver (Colorado), the groundbreaking exhibition Saints, Sinners, Lovers, and Fools: 300 Years of Flemish Masterworks travels to Texas. At the Dallas Museum of Art, visitors can discover more than 130 masterpieces from The Phoebus Foundation collection starting February 19. Each work introduces the viewer to the unique artistic heritage of the Southern Netherlands in the fifteenth, sixteenth, and seventeenth centuries.
Saints, Sinners, Lovers, and Fools immerses visitors in the wondrous world of Hans Memling, Jan Gossaert, Jan and Catharina van Hemessen, Peter Paul Rubens, Jacob Jordaens, and Antoon Van Dyck. From the highly religious works of the Flemish Primitives, it moves through portraits of prosperous citizens to the scientific discovery of the world. Whimsical paintings featuring fools bring a smile to your face, and the overwhelming emotion of the Baroque leaves few viewers unmoved even today. You conclude in a veritable art cabinet, where paintings in seventeenth-century style hang above, below, and beside each other and are combined in a dizzying manner with sculptures and refined curiosities.
Dr. Katharina Van Cauteren, curator of the exhibition and chief of staff of the Chancellery of The Phoebus Foundation, says from Texas: 'The paintings in this exhibition may have been made thousands of kilometers from here and hundreds of years ago, but actually that doesn't matter. In this exhibition we bring them to life. And then you quickly see that they are about people with dreams, fears, and ambitions – people, like you and me.'
The Dallas Museum of Art has previously hosted special exhibitions with renowned partners, such as 'The Body Beautiful in Ancient Greece. Masterworks from the British Museum', 'Visions of America. Three Centuries of Prints from the National Gallery of Art', and recently 'Cartier and Islamic Art. In Search of Modernity'. Van Cauteren: 'At the Denver Art Museum, Saints, Sinners, Lovers, and Fools attracted an average of over 550 visitors per day. Combined with the quality of the artworks, this undoubtedly explains the interest our project has meanwhile received from other institutions in North America.' After Denver and Dallas, Saints, Sinners, Lovers, and Fools travels to Montréal, and subsequently to 'witch city' Salem (Massachusetts). Discussions are also ongoing with other host institutions. Van Cauteren: 'We are deeply honored that we can contribute to putting Flemish art on the world map!'
Saints, Sinners, Lovers, and Fools: 300 Years of Flemish Masterworks can be viewed at the Dallas Museum of Art from February 19 to June 25, 2023. For the exhibition, Katharina Van Cauteren wrote the book From Memling to Rubens (published in Dutch as Wij. Van Zalig tot Zot). The publication is available via the website of The Phoebus Foundation www.phoebusfoundation.org or via www.hannibalbooks.be.