Description of the attraction
The Royal Museum of Fine Arts of Belgium is a combination of the Museum of Old Art and the Museum of Modern Art, located next to the Royal Palace of Brussels, the Antoine Wierz Museum and the Constantin Meunier Museum. It contains a large collection of paintings and sculptures belonging to the state, collected during the reign of the Austrian kings. Then these values were plundered by the French revolutionary troops and transported to Paris. Only after the death of Napoleon, all the confiscated masterpieces were returned to their homeland.
The new kings Wilhelm I and Leonidas I purchased many paintings for the museum, and the former mayor of Brussels donated priceless works of art by the Flemish primitivists, thanks to which the museum's collection expanded significantly. For example, an exposition from old collections is represented by works by Flemish, French and Italian painters.
From XIV to XVIII centuries. the main part of the exhibition is devoted to Belgian paintings kept in the Habsburg Palace. The collection of works of the 20th century is located in the annex to the building. The numbering of the halls of the Museum of Fine Arts is indicated not by numbers, but by letters. Here you can see the canvases of world famous masters - Jan van Eyck, Hans Memling, Quentin Masseys, as well as the triptych “Seven Sacraments” by Rogier van der Weyden and others. The picture of the Belgian artist Fernand Knopor “Memories”, which is one of the brightest collection exhibits.
In Ixelles, a suburb of Brussels, there are the Antoine Wirtz Museum (opened in 1868) and the Constantin Meunier Museum (opened in 1978), which are part of the Royal Museum of Fine Arts. They exhibit works by masters of surrealism.
Visiting the Museum of Fine Arts, you can see the unknown works of great artists, as well as get acquainted with the work of little-known painters.
