Lecture by Dr. Koen Bulckens: Art in Times of Trouble. Maerten De Vos and his Print Series after the Antwerp Citadel
In the late 16th century, the booming metropolis of Antwerp spiralled into decay due to the Eighty-Years War. Amidst this religious and territorial conflict, Maerten De Vos (Antwerp, 1532‒1603) maintained a booming artistic practice. He painted commissions for both Calvinist and Catholic patrons in his home-town, decorated a Lutheran church in present-day Germany, and published religious engravings which crossed the ocean to be copied throughout Spain’s colonies. He was also a prolific creator of secular subjects. One example is his print series detailing the demolition of the Antwerp Citadel, an intriguing episode in the city’s history which forms the starting point of this talk.
Koen Bulckens is Curator of 16th and 17th Century Art at the Antwerp Museum of Fine Arts (KMSKA). He is the author of a volume in the Corpus Rubenianum and of a dissertation on the workshop practice of Peter Paul Rubens. Together with Nico Van Hout, he recently curated the Turning Heads exhibition for the Antwerp museum and the National Gallery of Ireland. At present, he is overseeing the conservation of two major Rubens altarpieces at the KMSKA, and investigating depictions of the history of the Antwerp Citadel, a massive fortress which once stood where the Antwerp museum is today.
The lecture is supported by the Delegation of Flanders in Poland and the Baltics.
