Art from Antwerp

"These paintings are our Flemish ambassadors,” Dr Paul Hevenne, Administrator General of The Royal Museum of Fine Arts Antwerp (RMFAA) introduced the famous paintings on loan at the exhibit Flemish Masterpieces from Antwerp. The exhibition will be on display from November 28, 2013 to February 9, 2014 at the Premchand Roychand Exhibition Gallery at the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sanghralaya (CSMVS) formerly known as the Prince of Wales Museum, Bombay. Capt Percy Master’s shipping firm, Master Group has partially sponsored the exhibition as "our group companies Prudential Global and Master Marine have been involved with Belgium since 1987... We are the general agents in India for Conti Lines, a premier Belgium shipping line,” Master wrote in response to Parsiana’s email query.

The old ox market in Antwerp by Peeter Van Bredael

The Flemish school typifies nature as precisely as possible whether in still life or portraiture. This is termed as ‘mimetic’ art. Miniature-like brush strokes were used as thin layers of paint are applied on top of each other, allowing for detail, luminosity and unprecedented fineness.
The RMFAA has shipped 28 masterpieces in various genres from their vast collection. Peter Paul Rubens and Jan I. Brueghel were the big names in the genre History; in Portrait, Rubens features once more with a self-portrait, while Anthony Van Dyck, Cornelis Van Der Voort and Gonzales Coques are also represented. As the Flemish middle class became wealthier, they inhabited larger homes whose walls needed to be filled. And so paintings grew larger and more thematic in keeping with the tastes of the time — religion, mythology and history being the most common. Genre Painting is all that is not religious, literary or historical. This is showcased by David Teniers, Jacob Jordaens and others. Landscape, where vantage points are immortalized as panoramas, abounds with works by Brueghel, Lucas Van Uden and Teniers. Coques, Frans Snijders, Jan Fijt provide examples of Still Life.

Also exhibited are 25 engravings from The Plantin-Moretus Museum (PMM), Antwerp, Belgium. Some of the engravers are Erasmus Quellinus, Lucas Vorsterman, Theodore Van Thulden who made engravings of Rubens’s artwork. About 200 prints are possible in engravings, especially if the plates are made of copper. Iris Kockelbergh, Director of PMM came forth readily to highlight the social commentary of the times through these paintings and how Rubens personally managed print production to promote his works.
Sabyasachi Mukherjee, director general CSMVS expressed great keenness that every city dweller should see this exhibition as "Rubens is mobile.” He also urged viewers to "understand the brilliant attainment of Flemish artists, their artistic skills, rich imagination and powers of observation” which are on display. As he summed up, "Beautiful things grow in beautiful environments.”