This edition of Phoebus Focus revolves around Frances Bell, the future Lady Dering, and her portrait. It’s a story of deeply human emotions – devotion to a husband imposed upon her, anxieties abou ...
Henri Leys, painter of many a scene that adorns the walls of the City on the Scheldt’s Town Hall and so highly acclaimed that he was made a baron. But that was then and this is now, and Baron Leys a ...
Dr Leen Kelchtermans recounts the intriguing life story of Mary Sidney, Lady Herbert, and whisks you away on a journey through time and space, from Mary’s country estate in Wilton to the Ardennes an ...
In this edition of Phoebus Focus, Lotte Kokkedee and Anna Tummers’ analysis extends beyond technology. They position Two Fisherboys in the context of Hals’ oeuvre. After all, are these seemingly i ...
If flowers could talk… In Forever Flowers, conservator Sven Van Dorst offers a different perspective on a vibrant genre, the seventeenth-century Flemish flower still life. His detailed explorati ...
Phoebus Focus XXXVIII In this edition of Phoebus Focus, Prof. dr. Larry Silver guides you to the court of Rudolf II. The author expertly demonstrates how art was used politically and conjures up a wor ...
The Farmers’ Tower and its intriguing history revealed in new stories and images never seen before Since 1931, the Farmers’ Tower has served as a majestic landmark on Antwerp’s skyline. As Europ ...
Who was the surrealist Chilean artist Roberto Matta (1911-2022)? What were his roots, how did he evolve as an artist and what place does he occupy in surrealism? How should we understand this work, an ...
A fascinating immersion into the cartography and history of the Low Countries An old map does not only represent a geographical situation; it also embodies a veritable journey of discovery through wor ...
Let yourself be captivated by the floral splendour of Vase of Flowers with Vanitas Symbols by Jan Davidsz. De Heem (1606-1684). De Heem belongs to the canon of Dutch Baroque painting and astonishes ev ...
The date: 16 September 2016. The place: Peru, where, in the church of San Sebastián in a suburb of Cuzco, one electrical wire touches another. When the fire is finally extinguished around midday, som ...
The Phoebus Foundation’s collection includes an unusual painting which has an equally unusual title: Head-Baker. A baker’s servant, frozen in motion, with his cleaver raised high in the air, ...
A lone walker at dawn in Ostend, Léon Spilliaert (1881-1946) is entranced by the bleak and ominous desolation of the promenade. A fascination with spatiality and the expression of infinity underlie t ...
A magnificent introduction to the Cobra art movement With French as its working language, Cobra was pretty much the last truly European movement within Modernism. The group’s anarchic story is not j ...
This Phoebus Focus tells the remarkable story of Johannes I Gansacker (1592-1664) and the remarkable history of his portrait. It allows us to interpret Gansacker as one of the many young, ambitious en ...
The Antwerp Baroque portrait specialist Anthony Van Dyck painted Henricus Liberti in around 1627-1632 as a self-assured and talented musician, who was well aware of his worth. Today, just a handful of ...
Daffodils, pink roses with heads bowed, an orange lily, flaming tulips, bright blue irises, … The variety of flowers and the bright colours are magnificent and appear to burst out of the panel ...
Did you know that lace production in Belgium experienced an unprecedented boom during the First World War? It seems almost contradictory, but during the Great War, lace-makers were producing more lace ...
In this Phoebus Focus edition, Katharina Van Cauteren, chief of staff at The Phoebus Foundation, made an analysis of the various meanings and motifs behind Hendrick De Clerck’s depiction of the ...
In praise of folly: on the fool and jester in Flemish art According to medieval theologians, faith is a deadly serious business. Humour and virtue are irreconcilable, because laughter is uncontrollabl ...
In this edition of 'Phoebus Focus', no less than three specialists examine two of the sketches that Baroque master Abraham Van Diepenbeeck made for the stained-glass windows of the Antwerp St. Paul's ...
Especially for the At Home with Jordaens exhibition at the Frans Hals Museum in Haarlem, The Phoebus Foundation published an OKV theme issue about Jacob Jordaens. Get to know this Antwerp superstar a ...
Servius Sulpicius Galba was a Roman emperor who overthrew and succeeded Nero during the Year of the Four Emperors, 68-69 AD. In this ‘Phoebus Focus’ Nils Büttner places the extraordinary emperor ...
From Memling to Rubens tells the story of Flemish art from the fifteenth, sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, as you’ve never read it before. It’s a rollercoaster ride through 300 years of cultur ...
In St Begga Leen Kelchtermans examines strong, religious women and their devotion, and Catholic and dynastic displays of power. She whisks the reader away to between the seventh and seventeenth centur ...
Servius Sulpicius Galba was a Roman emperor who overthrew and succeeded Nero during the Year of the Four Emperors, 68-69 AD. In this ‘Phoebus Focus’ Nils Büttner places the extraordinary emperor ...
This OKV theme issue appeared in the spring of 2020 for the occasion of the portrait exhibition The Bold and the Beautiful (2020).The booklet guides you through a few subjects that appeal to the imagi ...
The Bold and the Beautiful is an appointment with history: a meeting through the art of portrait painting with men and women from bygone centuries. This book takes masterpieces from the collection of ...
In this Phoebus Focus edition, Lieke Wijnia takes the reader through the history of Saint Mary Magdalene and the little-known artist Melchior de la Mars. Moreover, the author holds up a mirror.
This Phoebus Focus explores Guicciardini's masterpiece and its fascinating history. The reader gets a taste of the many themes that the Italian authors address in his magnum opus.
This painting of a Young Woman by the Brussels artist Michaelina Wautier appears at first sight to be an ordinary study. Nothing could be further from the truth! A look in detail and behind the layers ...
Archaeologist Petra Linscheid introduces the unique collection of historical Egyptian headgear from The Phoebus Foundation. These rare pieces cover more than a 1000 year of fashion history.
Rubens expert Nils Büttner analyses the most intimate work of the Antwerp pictor doctus in the collection of The Phoebus Foundation. He discovers the many similarities with other works of art by the ...
In this Phoebus Focus, sculpture specialist Marjan Debaene unfolds the forgotten history of the the Jan Borman and his illustrious family. His grandiose statue of the Madonna and Child forms the start ...
In this Phoebus Focus restorer Naomi Meulemans analyses the work of CoBrA artist Karel Appel. Like no one else, she can extract secrets from the materiality of the paint.
Peter Snayers specialized in painting scenes of war and combat. In addition to large canvases that glorified military campaigns, he also depicted the ordinary man or woman, plagued by the daily realit ...
The Allegory of the Seven Liberal Arts is a masterpiece from the Flemish painter Maerten de Vos. For the first time this unique artwork is analyzed in depth and placed in its historical context.
The Mere-Monster of Lake Tagua Tagua is an intriguing and enigmatic artwork from the collection of The Phoebes Foundation. This absurd animal is the synthesis of more than 300 years of image building. ...
The fable ‘Van den vos Reynaerde’ was written in the 13th century Flanders. The fox is an antihero: a villain - even a murderer - who mercilessly denounces the hypocrisy of the establishment.
Those who say Reynaert, spontaneously think of the mischievous villain with his sharp tongue who count on a lot of sympathy. VOSSEN tells the story of Reynaert the fox and his relation with the Belgia ...
This OKV issue brings to vivid life the broad cultural context of the Flemish belle époque and the years between the twentieth century’s two world wars. It’s a book about Symbolism, Impre ...