Archaic paintings

The Yper Museum has some beautiful, unique paintings depicting religious scenes, thanks to the rich collection of the almshouses. This has not gone unnoticed by the academic world. On 21 January, Prof. Didier Martens and his assistant Alexandere Dimov visited the depot. Didier Martens is Professor of Art History at the Université Libre de Bruxelles. Alexandre Dimov works at the Centre de recherches Histoire, Arts et Culture des Sociétés anciennes, médiévales et modernes (Centre for Research into the History, Arts and Culture of Ancient, Medieval and Modern Societies).

In their research into “archaic Flemish paintings”, they are studying 16th-century works that look “deliberately” older. The artist consciously made his work closely resemble the style of the 15th century. Other 16th-century paintings have more contemporary compositions. The Ypres Museum has a collection of such paintings. They display characteristics of the Flemish Primitives of the 15th century, even though they were created a century later.

We look forward to the results of this research! Take a look at the following works below:

• The relatively unknown Mystical Marriage of Catherine of Alexandria. (Our Lady's Hospital)
• The exceptionally beautiful panel “Our Lady with Jesus in a Flemish Landscape”. (Godshuis Belle)
• The panel “O Mater Dei Memento Mei” (O Mother of God, Remember Me), with a particularly sweet scene in which the baby Jesus spontaneously embraces his mother. (Sint-Jansgodshuis)