From scribble to cartoon

With the exhibition From crabbelinge to carton. Drawings from Bruegel to Rubens in autumn 2023, the Museum Plantin-Moretus brings its masterpieces — and those from partner institutions in Flanders — into the international spotlight. This exhibition presents the 100 most beautiful Old Master drawings from Flemish collections. Together, they offer a stunning overview of who drew in our regions in the 16th and 17th centuries, and why and how they did so.

It is a unique opportunity to see several remarkable highlights side by side, such as the sketchbook of the 12-year-old Rubens, the 10-metre-long Panorama of Zeeland by Anthonis van den Wijngaerde, and the extremely rare Italian sketchbooks of sculptor Pieter Verbruggen. Alongside major names such as Pieter and Jan Bruegel, Anthony van Dyck, Jacob Jordaens or Pieter Coecke van Aelst, the beautiful and rarely shown sheets by lesser-known draughtsmen like Jan van Stinemolen, Cornelis de Vos, Jan Boeckhorst, Godfried Maes and Jan Erasmus Quellinus offer a surprising discovery.

“The visitor is challenged to look beyond the depicted subject and consider the purpose the drawings served, and why the artist chose specific materials, techniques, formats and dimensions.”

— Virginie D’haene, curator of the exhibition

The quality of the drawings preserved in Flanders is exceptionally high. In 2020 and 2021, the Flemish government placed a large number of 16th- and 17th-century prints and drawings on the Masterpiece List. These include rare masterpieces by Bruegel, Rubens, Van Dyck, Jordaens, Otto van Veen, Jan Fijt and other artists. Each one is an extraordinary or indispensable work of art, such as the rare drawings by Paul Vredeman de Vries discovered in 2019, as well as works by Frans Floris, Paul Bril and Johannes Stradanus.

The museum is seizing this Masterpiece recognition as an opportunity to highlight its unique drawing collection. It presents an overview exhibition that illustrates who drew in our regions in the 16th and 17th centuries, and why and how they did so.

“With a collection of more than 75,000 objects, the print room is among the fifty most important print rooms in the world. The collection is built around Antwerp artists, from 1500 to today. In the storage rooms, Rubens, Van Dyck, Ensor and Panamarenko lie side by side.”

— Iris Kockelbergh, director

This exhibition was organised by the Museum Plantin-Moretus, Antwerp, under the curatorship of Virginie D'haene. It will be shown in an adapted version at the Ashmolean Museum of Art and Archaeology, Oxford, under the title Bruegel to Rubens. Great Flemish Drawings, from 22 March to 29 June 2024, co-curated by An Van Camp and Virginie D'haene.

This exhibition is supported by the Flemish Government and The Paper Project, an initiative of Getty. It also carries the EU Presidency label.