The Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna was founded upon the vast art collection built by the Austrian Habsburgs, and is today one of Europe’s most celebrated museums. Drawn from the Kunsthistorisches Museum’s distinguished collection, this exhibition focused on 16th and 17th century Dutch and Flemish (from Flanders, or the Southern Netherlands, which roughly corresponds to modern-day Belgium) paintings, which form one of the highlights of Western art history. The exhibition included outstanding works by the era’s leading masters, Peter Paul Rubens, Antoon (Anthony) van Dyck, Rembrandt van Rijn, and Johannes Vermeer, among others.

A remarkable feat of this exhibition was the inclusion of Die Malkunst (The Art of Painting, also known as The Allegory of Painting), a leading work by Vermeer, which travelled to Japan for the first time. This very special painting is not only one of the greatest treasures of the Kunsthistorisches Museum - countless people make trips to Vienna just to see this painting - but is also a crown jewel of European painting.

The 58 exhibits, which also included excellent works by Jan Brueghel the Elder, Jan Steen and Jacob van Ruisdael, amply demonstrated the breadth and depth of the golden age of painting.

Exhibits :

• 58 oil paintings

Catalogue Texts :

• Karl Schütz
• Kikuo Nishimura
• Tadayoshi Miyoshi
• Yuko Okuda
• Yasumasa Oka

Lender :

• Kunsthistorisches Museum Wien

<Image>
Johannes Vermeer van Delft
"The Allegory of Painting"
oil on canvas, 120 x 100 cm
circa 1665-66
Fotocopyright :
Kunsthistorisches Museum Wien