Royal Museum of Fine Arts, Brussels

On a cold November day I made a short stop in Brussels to hop in at the ‘old masters’ wing of the Royal Museum of Fine Arts. I had a little less than an hour….

When you enter the huge white marble hall, you immediately feel invited by a fine selection of paintings and sculptures. On the left you find the entrance to the museumcafe serving some typical local belgian dishes on the menu. To the right down the escalator, you head to the Magritte museum and straight ahead you find the staircase to the ‘old masters’ wing.

‘Masters’ is the least you can say… The coloured walls on the second floor draped around the entrance hall are just stuffed with the chef d’oeuvres of the greatest painters of the 15-17th century in the Low Countries! WAW!

Jacob Jordaens, The King drinks

You find Peter Paul Rubens’ sketch of a Moor, Jacob Jordaens’ The king drinks, and  Anthony van Dijck representing the Flemish baroque painters of the Antwerp school in the 15-1600.
Others, famous for their landscape or rural life painting are David Teniers’ Vlaamse Kermis – Flemish fair (married Jan Breugels’ daughter), Adriaan Brouwer,  Pieter Breugels’  Fall of  Icarus, Het gevecht tussen carnaval en vasten…

More religious themes are found in the 15th century paintings of Hieronymus Van Aken ( or Bosch), Hans Memling (disciple of Rogier van der Weyden)
Portraits in Renaissance style by Lucas Cranach the young and the elder, …

It’s a go
One highlight next to the other one…Just in a few galleries several masterpieces of 200 years of painting in the Low Countries can be found. This wing comprises only a few galleries but I must say I was impressed. So if you’re a fan of this era, this place is not to be missed…

http://www.fine-arts-museum.be/en/museums
entry fee: 8 euros (13 for a combi ticket with Magritte museum and modern art museum)