In the conservation studio of The Phoebus Foundation, we meet Maron Zwakman, junior conservator. In her role, she oversees the Foundation’s outgoing loans, a responsibility that has grown steadily in recent years as an increasing number of works from the collection travel natio ...

The conservation studio of The Phoebus Foundation has recently acquired a new addition: a heat and low-pressure table. This significantly expands the range of possibilities within conservation projects, while supporting an approach based on minimal intervention and maximum contro ...

Last month we outlined the initial phase of the restauration of Justus Sustermans’s Portrait of Cosimo III de’ Medici as a Child (1649). The treatment has since reached completion. After the removal of the degraded varnish, the work progressed to structural interventions aime ...

Halfway through her fellowship at The Phoebus Foundation, Brazilian paintings conservator Aline Assumpção from São Paulo is restoring Portrait of Cosimo III de’ Medici as a Child, a delicate work by Flemish master Justus Sustermans (1597–1681). Dating from 1649, when C ...

At The Phoebus Foundation’s depot, all hands are on deck. Our upcoming exhibition Garden of Delights. The Seventeenth Century in Bloom is soon heading to Estonia, and that calls for meticulous preparation. Every artwork – along with the entire scenography – is being careful ...

In the workshops of The Phoebus Foundation, the late medieval limestone altarpiece of Saint-Denis-en-Broqueroie is currently undergoing a thorough restoration. Once richly polychromed, the piece shows signs of centuries of neglect: yellowed varnish, soot, grime, and numerous pain ...

When visiting an exhibition, one mostly sees the end result: artworks presented in a carefully considered setting, ready to move, surprise, or provoke thought. But behind that apparent effortlessness lies an intense process that takes months of work by an entire team. For Het kom ...

Saint Rosalia is a small, religious scene on a copper support, in the style and palette typical of the artist. The composition centres around two prominent figures: Saint Rosalia of Palermo, Sicily is on the right, depicted in a dark-blue dress, wearing a crown of red roses and h ...

In the chilly workhalls of Den Argentin, former dockworkers and stevedores work steadily on. With seasoned hands and a wealth of experience, they dedicate themselves to breathing new life into old machines and tools. It is tough work, especially in winter, but their motivation is ...

Restoration and conservation techniques are constantly evolving: materials and methods are updated based on new technologies and discoveries. To stay informed about the latest developments, we frequently organise workshops in our restoration studio where specialists share their e ...

In the 1630s, the Antwerp-born Peter Snayers painted the Siege of Horn. Although less known today, he was a famous battle painter in his time. He worked in Brussels, where his main patrons were based: the court and military commanders. They were eager to have their own triumphs ...

In an earlier article, we informed you about our treatment of the panel depicting the Apostle Peter with the centurion Cornelius (ca. 1560–1600), attributed to Maarten De Vos. This was a challenging treatment, because the painting was covered by layers of grime, old varnishes ...

Last month, we went behind the scenes and got to know our new student interns, Shimels Ayele Yalew and Ayenew Sileshi Demssie. They supported our team in various activities focused on the preventive conservation of different works from The Phoebus Foundation’s collection. S ...

Painting conservator Franziska Bunse, who has been a Fellow at The Phoebus Foundation for the past three months, is restoring a panel painting from the foundation’s collection under the expert guidance of Sara Mateu and in collaboration with Brian Richardson. This work is a ...

On June 21, 2024, the exhibition History and Mistery: Latin American Art and Europe opened at the Kumu Art Museum in Tallinn, Estonia. This exceptional installation features 112 Latin American works curated by Sirje Helme and Kadi Polli, whilst offering a unique scenography desig ...

At the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts (MMFA), a lot of work has been going on behind the scenes over the past few weeks in preparation for the upcoming exhibition Saints, Sinners, Lovers and Fools, which opens on 8 June 2024. A particularly fascinating aspect of the preparation was ...

Eva van Zuien, independent restorer specialising in old masters, recently completed the restoration of a true artistic gem. Commissioned by The Phoebus Foundation, she breathed new life into Bust of a Saint by Brussels artist Michaelina Wautier. Michaelina’s distinctive tou ...

This month, we take you behind the scenes in our restoration studio. Under the guidance of Clara Bondia, Julio Alpuy’s Eden is being prepared for an upcoming exhibition. Julio Alpuy (1919-2009) was a Uruguayan artist closely associated with Torres García’s inner circ ...

In the midst of a bustling schedule filled with numerous projects and publications, these days are also particularly busy in our photo studio. From capturing the intricate details of medieval retables and the timeless allure of baroque portraits to immortalizing the essence of La ...

This month, we take a closer look at the restoration of an intriguing work of art: The Witches’ Sabbath, a 16th-century masterpiece by Frans Verbeek. We focus on the restoration of the oak support, carried out by Brian Richardson, a specialist in the conservation and restor ...

Over the past three months, we welcomed a new Phoebus Fellow to our studio: Perrine de Fontenay from Paris. During her fellowship, Perrine focused on the conservation of paintings from our sub-collections of Latin American colonial art and Old Masters. Among other projects, she c ...

For this unique behind-the-scenes feature, we talk with the team of art handlers who work for The Phoebus Foundation. Get to know Idris Sevenans, Claire Dieltjes, Bram Van Broeckhoven, Claartje Borgmann and Florian Sevenans who manage and organize, under the supervision of our CO ...

As part of the conservation of The Phoebus Foundation’s modern and contemporary Latin American collection, Rafael Barradas’s painting The Party from 1910 is currently in the hands of Clara Bondia. It showcases an expressive figurative style that predates BarradasR ...

Giovanna Tamà is an independent conservator specializing in Old Masters. Join us inside the The Phoebus Foundation restoration studio as she unveils her captivating work on various projects, including the restoration treatment of Prometheus Bound. Let’s take a look behind ...

Oliver Claes has now been working as a paper and book conservator for more than a decade. This includes taking care of the conservation of The Phoebus Foundation’s topographical and historical book collection. For the past three months, Oliver’s work included the rest ...

This month, we welcomed a new Phoebus Fellow into our conservation studio: the French-Dutch painting restorer Annika Roy. For the next three months, Annika is taking care of Hendrick De Clerck’s Noli me tangere. “This painting, dated between 1560 and 1630, depicts a ...

At The Phoebus Foundation’s restoration studio, conservator Carlos González Juste and former Phoebus Fellow, Kaisa-Piia Pedajas, are currently restoring a unique series from the Phoebus collection, namely 12 portraits of Inca emperors and Francisco Pizarro. This month, we ...

Leonora Carrington’s work, The Dark Night of Aranoë is part of the Latin American sub-collection of The Phoebus Foundation. Restorer Naomi Meulemans is in charge of the foundation’s modern and contemporary collections and started the restoration of this work follow ...

This month, we go behind the scenes with twin sisters Jill and Ellen Keppens, who are currently restoring the seventeenth-century portrait of a nobleman from the Volpi family with his wife and children. “A while ago, we were introduced to the Volpi family. This intriguing f ...

This month, Chief Conservator of The Phoebus Foundation Sven Van Dorst tells us about the conservation treatment of The Crucifixion panel by Master of the Legend of Saint Lucy. He masterfully describes how this work was created, where the stylistic influences come from, and wha ...

This month, we take you behind the scenes with Sofia Hennen, paintings conservator and art historian, who recently restored the work titled Tavern Interior by Pieter Pietersz from our collection. “The conservation-restoration treatment of Tavern Interior by Pieter Piete ...

This month, we take you behind the scenes with Brian Richardson, a specialist in the conservation and restoration of wooden objects and furniture. Brian recently worked on an unusual installation by contemporary Flemish artist Wim Delvoye, which consists of a display case contain ...

Collection Consultant Katrijn Van Bragt and Conservator Naomi Meulemans take you along on their journey to Sudbury, Suffolk (UK), for the installation of the Painting Flanders exhibition at Gainsborough’s House! Katrijn and Naomi made sure more than 40 masterpieces by Emile C ...

This month, we go behind the scenes of our restoration studio, where a new Phoebus Fellow joins the team for three months: Clara Bondia. She is pleased to share more about her projects at The Phoebus Foundation. “On the one hand, I am studying and restoring an eighteenth-ce ...

Our exhibition Saints, Sinners, Lovers, and Fools at the Denver Art Museum is getting closer! However, preparations for such a large-scale project involve a lot of work. Our colleague Laura Geudens is happy to take you behind the scenes. “As I have a conservation and restor ...

This month, we had the honour and pleasure of welcoming Dr Andrea Seim to The Phoebus Foundation’s art conservation studio. With her exceptional knowledge and research in dendrochronology – the scientific method of dating annual rings of trees (also called growth ring ...

Our sub-collection of Latin American art is also undergoing conservation treatments! Phoebus Conservator Naomi Meulemans is happy to take you behind the paint layers of Amorphous Figures by Chilean artist Roberto Matta (1911-2002). “Matta cre ...

You may have noticed… Our loan activities do not stand still! Moreover, ever since the end of the (worst) Covid-19 pandemic, we have a particularly large number of artworks that are leaving our warehouse on a short or longer journey to be presented in Belgium and abroad. Fo ...

Meet our new Phoebus Fellow: Alexandra Taylor! All the way from New Zealand, Alexandra joined our conservation team last month. She will assist our conservators in various projects for the next three months. Alexandra immediately started with the treatment of Jan Miel’s Figure ...

Crazy about Dymphna opened a month ago in Geel! Project coordinator Niels Schalley is happy to tell you more about the construction and installation of this fascinating exhibition: “After a two-year delay because of Covid-19, it was fantastic to finally be able to bring the ...

Conservators Titania Hess and Laura Guilluy take you behind the scenes of the Phoebus conservation studio! ‘Christ Triumphiant, by Jacob Jordaens, has undergone a full restoration treatment! As the painting was relined during a previous treatment, the canvas was in excellen ...

We start this new year with launching exciting conservation projects at the Phoebus conservation studio! Naomi Meulemans, conservator of the modern and contemporary sub-collections, oversees the restoration campaign of the installation Los Muñecos, created in 1960 by Italian-Arg ...

As usual at The Phoebus Foundation, conservation and research go hand in hand. A beautiful example is The Virgin of the Candlelight, an anonymous Peruvian work on canvas from the 18th century which is part of the collection Latin-American art from the Colonial period. Conservator ...

For the exhibition James Ensor in Kunsthalle Mannheim (DE), conservator Naomi Meulemans travelled in 2021 as a courier to Germany to help with the installation of no less than 5 artworks that The Phoebus Foundation gave in loan for this project. The work of the Belgian artist Jam ...

Phoebus Fellow Anna Rota (IT) is happy to offer you a glimpse behind the scenes of her conservation project at The Phoebus Foundation: ‘Despite its small size (25 x 25 cm), this painting by the studio of Joos Van Cleve (1485-1541), immediately attracts our attention. The un ...

Art historian Anne-Rieke van Schaik (NL) focused during het fellowship on the sub-collection Topography and Cartography. Anne-Rieke is glad to give an insight in her Phoebus Fellowship program: ‘Early modern media, the narrative qualities of cartography, and the intertwinin ...

Time flies! After more than seven months, we said goodbye to the city of Tallinn at the end of November 2021, where we organized the exhibitions From Memling to Rubens and Crazy about Dymphna at the Kadriorg Museum and the Niguliste Museum. It was such an honour to travel abroad ...

Collection registration and beautiful books don’t exist without perfect images. Take a look behind the scenes of our photo studio where our photographers capture various artworks with their lenses. Michel is happy to tell you more about this fascinating and challenging task. Is ...

Discover a very special part of The Phoebus Foundation’s collection: Maritime and Logistic Heritage! A team of enthusiastic volunteers is in charge of the daily routine of this extraordinary collection. As retired dockworkers with a passion for heritage they know this collectio ...

Take a look behind the scenes at the restoration treatment of one of the oldest oil paintings from the collection of The Phoebus Foundation. Dating from c.1418-25, the artwork is even older than the famous Ghent Altarpiece by the brothers van Eyck (1432). Consisting of four panel ...

Especially for At home with Jordaens, various works by Jacob Jordaens underwent an extensive conservation treatment. Conservators Jill and Ellen Keppens take you behind the paint layers of The Sleeping Antiope Approached by Jupiter (1660). ‘This painting reminded us of an o ...