05.08.2025-07.31.2025
THEATRUM MUNDI
Questions of morality in 16th and 17th century Flemish painting
Shaped by the prospect of the afterlife, 16th and 17th century Flemish painting is full of precepts and symbols of the divine. Over the centuries, the meaning of these once well-understood symbols has become clouded. This loss of understanding applies all the more to genre scenes and still lifes, with their depiction of pleasures and idleness to the detriment of hard work and good morals.
Since life is ephemeral, perishable and as futile as a comedy, a mere trial before Salvation, its purpose can only be moral and virtuous. However, if the world is a stage, it is also a place for experimentation, from which everyone can learn. The painter, author and creator, assigns his characters to roles that are sometimes good, sometimes bad; for the viewer, it is all about finding the right balance.
Artists such as Pieter Brueghel the Younger adopted an educational, humorous and even indulgent approach to convey good behaviour in their works. For others, such as Pieter Huys, painting morality was also an opportunity to reveal without artifice all the deviancies of the soul, right down to its darkest fantasies.
Whether a guardian of thought or a pretext for the image portrayed, morality was a constituent element in the production of Flemish painters. This exhibition illustrates its different interpretations through the works of the masters of the Southern Netherlands.
Image
Pieter Brueghel le Jeune
(Bruxelles 1564 – Anvers 1638)
Le Dénicheur
Panneau : 61,7 x 77,5 cm