Putting together an Old masters exhibition – The Golden Age of Dutch and Flemish painting from the Städel museum – in a museum with architecture as modern as the Guggeheim’s in Bilbao, was somewhat of a challenge. But now that it has been done the experience has proved to be perfect.

130 splendid works by eighty great sixteenth century artists can now be viewed without any shock or oddness about it. Not even the curved walls of the small room have proved to be an obstacle that now displays, in solitude, one of the great master works by Jan Vermeer the Geographer. The connoisseurs accredit its composition to the use of a camera obscura. The figure is no doubt a scientist, in a space of shadows and lights, looking up at the window as if the inspiration he had long been waiting for had just come to him. The action seems to stop, the objects which surround him are scientific instruments, an allegory maybe of human interest.             

The exhibit reflects the tastes and values of the society of the time, which had evolved at the pace of the religious and historical events. It was a bourgeoisie society, free and prosperous, composed mainly of rich merchants, who used paintings, never of great format, to adorn their homes as a token of their values. Citiez and citizens without princes, freed since the rebellion of the United Provinces of the North against the rule of the Spanish Hapsburgs and the triumph of the protestant reform.    

The works occupy the third floor of the museum divided in five sections: landscapes, historical painting, Still life, portrait and genre painting. Each in one or more in rooms painted in different tones. The landscapes were a very popular theme in the sixteenth century in Holland. They reflected reality exactly. They were typically Dutch. The artists who cultivated this genre, among them Van Goyen, painted them with great skies and a low horizon line. A curious work and surprising for its detail among other things, is the landscape of forests with hermitage painted on a deck card by Peter Stevens.     

In the Still life section a must stop is the oil by Peter Willebeck, of moral intentions. It is a Vanitas. In the middle of the luxurious objects, a skull stands out. It is a reminder of death, in life. Still life painters selected with care the objects they portrayed. They had a meaning, they said something about the person who acquired them. The Still life with fish on a kitchen table by Jacob van Es has been thought to belong to a or union of fishermen. The one of  by Jan Weenix, indicates the owner was a hunter, a rich man depending on the times or maybe someone who just wanted to show off.

Frans Halls fills the gap dedicateed to portraiture. The first thing offered to the eyes of the visitor upon entering are the portraits of a man and woman, very typical of the artist but still surprising because of the masterfull execution. There is no lacking of others by Cornelius de Vos such as the delicate Portrait of Susan de Vos, the painter’s third daughter or Portrait of a woman in a black dress by Nicolaes Maes. Equally important is Young singer  by Dirk van Baburen which demonstrates the influence of Caravaggio, despite being considered bad art.

In historical painting there is a selection of Works on view by Jan Brueghel the elder, The mockery of Latona among them. Brueghel the younger is also present Paradise landscape with Eve and Adam, as well as works by David Teniers the younger.

Genre painting is represented by painters such as Pietr janssens, Gerard ter Borch and of course Adrien Brouwe with his Bitter Draught with which he accomplishes the intense effect he intended. It represents a man of low social extraction who spits the drink he has just drunk.

The exhibition has been made posible thanks to the generous BBVA foundation, the efforts of the Guggenheim museum, the experience of the curator, Mohen Sander, subdirector and curator of German painting of the Stäel museum. One last thing: If you go be sure to visit the Camara Obscura it is an extraordinary experience.

The show will be on view until the 23rd of January. 

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