♛ Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium — Creativity takes courage
A true artist is not one who is inspired, but one who inspires others.
― Salvador Dali
Belgium is a country with a rich culture and history, and also has an impressive background when it comes to art. A visit to the Royal Museum of Fine Arts was fascinating even for those who do not like or understand art that much. I hope that this article and the journey through epochs and centuries will bring closer the spirit and importance of art.
The Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium is located in Brussels’ historic center and it is a group of six different art museums — The Oldmasters Museum, Modern Museum, Meunier Museum, Wiertz Museum, Magritte Museum, and The Fin-de-Siècle Museum.
The whole complex consists of 20,000 works, dating from the 15th century to the modern-day, including not only paintings but also sculptures and pieces of furniture.
Here you can find paintings from Rubens, Rodin, Gauguin, Magritte, and many more. There’s also an impressive collection of works from the Flemish school, including Pieter Bruegel.
This museum does not belong on the A-List of European art museums (like The Louvre, Prado, & Vatican Museums), but it is still a must-visit for art lovers. Everyone will find his / her favorite corner. I am now going to take you through mine with a parallel of the paintings from the Old Masters part of Museum.
To See with Ellipse — an exhibition by Fabrice Samyn
Does the museum help us to get in touch with our vulnerability?
Imbued with a powerful poetic dimension, Fabrice Samyn’s art questions reality and relationship with time. While walking through the room and watching his art, I had a sensory experience that is both intimate and spiritual.
PARADISE LOST
He portrayed some personalities in a modern way and gave them a whole new meaning. One of them is the modern version of Adam and Eve. Here is how they look like in the eyes of Fabrice Samyn, and later on we will see how the German Renaissance painter Lucas Cranah portrayed them. I came across his painting in another part of the museum and made a parallel.
Eve & Adam questions our origins. The painting shows us a couple, which the composition divides into two halves. Put together they would form an androgynous being, simultaneously feminine and masculine.
Unlike Fabrice, Cranach depicts the moment when Eve passes the forbidden apple to Adam. In the background is pictured the tree of knowledge of good and evil. The snake, who tricked Eve, is entwined around the tree next to her ear, as if he were about to whisper to her.
POSES
For this painting, Fabrice Samyn copied a small detail from Caravaggio’s famous painting Narcissus — the young man’s hand at the lake’s edge, mirrored in the water. He put this detail vertically, so that the water appears like a mirror on the wall and the hands in prayer.
It was not only Fabrice who was inspired by Caravaggio’s work. The Baroque painter Melchior de la Mars was a Flemish Baroque painter active in Ghent. He is considered as an early representative of the so-called Ghent Caravaggisti. The Caravaggisti (or the Caravagesques) were stylistic followers of the late 16th-century Italian Baroque painter Caravaggio.
A further walk through the museum introduces us to the work of another painter inspired by Caravaggio’s work. Franz Hals. Besides Rembrandt, he is considered as one of the most important painters from the Northern Netherlands of the seventeenth century. He painted in the Baroque style period and is especially famous as a portrait painter. In his early period, Hals was influenced by Flemish artists such as Peter Paul Rubens, and by the Utrecht Caravaggists.
The spirit of Greek mythology
This is a very inspiring picture painted by the Flemish painter Jan Brueghel. He portrayed the torments that the tragic epic hero Aeneas faced in the underworld. This painting tells the story of the tragic love of Dido and Aeneas.
Aeneas traveled through the underworld where he met Dido who committed suicide because of his non-return of love. On a journey through the underworld in honor of the collective, he will encounter what will make him at least for a moment free himself from the ropes and beg for forgiveness. In all that horror, he meets Dido, but her appearance will only contribute to his feeling of helplessness.
REFLECTIONS
Art history connects with personal history. By questioning the limits of image and the risks of becoming lost in self obsession, Fabrice Samyn gives us his thoughts on the passing of time, and on what remains of us beyond our earthly lives.
A museum is a place where you can escape from others, but not from your own thoughts. Which is sometimes good. Thinking about the art, and the art itself is what inspires us and make us feel alive. I hope that future visitors will also find their corner in the Royal Museums of Fine Arts, like I did. ♛
