An exhibition with artworks of over 300 years, and showing side-by-side paintings of masters like Brueghel, Bosch, Patinir and Rubens, always presents a unique opportunity to reflect on the changes of taste and attitude of a society in the process of becoming. Such opportunities for insight are so precious today because they are increasingly rare. And when that society is such a defining one for our modern sensibility, as that which emerged in the Southern Netherlands, and the works so exquisite and first class, as those of The Phoebus Foundation, it is destined to make a unique contribution to the thought and education of art and history.
“Saints, Sinners, Lovers, and Fools: 300 Years of Flemish Masterworks” at the Denver Art Museum is just such an opportunity. It showcases masterpieces from 15 - to 17-century Flemish art that underscore the extreme earthliness and homely quality of a people who truly enjoyed things of this life. If we are to find a spiritual thread on the tapestry of Flemish art history, it is their delight with the profits of
