Date: 26.03.2021 - 04.07.2021
Temporary exhibition
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For half a century, the voices of Children who would become major political figures in 16 century Europe could be heard behind the walls of the Court of Cambrai in Mechelen. Children of the Renaissance. Art and Education at the Habsburg Court (1480–1530) tells the remarkable story of this royal household of children.
In the Court of Cambrai, three generations of Burgundian-Habsburg princes and princesses, including Philip the Fair, Margaret of Austria and the future Charles V, grow up. They are groomed to play prominent roles in the Habsburg world empire. Children from all over Europe come to Mechelen as playmates for the Habsburg Princess, including the future Queen of England, Anne Boleyn. The Habsburg princes and princesses have the best teachers, the finest clothes, the most exquisite toys and the best books. They want for nothing. But are they truly happy?
Prominent painters such as Master of the Saint George Gild of Mechelen, Pieter van Coninxloo, Master of the Magdalene Legend and Jan Gossart capture the children of the Chamber of Cambrai in all their fragility. Delicate faces. Mysterious gazes. These children are pawns in a political game over which they themselves have no influence. The portraits also play a significant role in marriage negotiations and the quest for more power.
Children of the Renaissance brings a selection of these 15th- and 16th-century panels back to Mechelen, often for the first time in five hundred years. Along with books, toys, jewellery and other special objects, they bring the Habsburg childhoods of 500 years ago to life.
Programme
Catalogue
This exhibition is accompanied by a publication of the same name, issued by Lannoo and featuring contributions by Samuel Mareel, Till-Holger Borchert, Hilde De Ridder-Symoens and Annemarieke Willemsen.
Partners
Children of the Renaissance is held under the High Patronage of His Majesty the King and was made possible with support from the Raphaël De Smedt Fund, managed by the King Baudouin Foundation.
Audio Guide, Visitor Guide and Family Trail
Visitors can choose from a wide range of ways to explore the exhibition. These include a general visitor guide introducing the highlights of the exhibition, an in-depth audio guide and a fun family trail with creative activities for all ages.
Children of Mechelen
In this shop-window exhibition, contemporary portraits of children appear in the windows of shops across Mechelen. The young subjects are none other than participants in the Mechelen Children's City museum camp. Wearing accessories they made themselves, the children dress as regally as possible and are photographed in all their splendour by photographer Stan Huaux.
Corporate Gifts to Heaven
The crypt of the Basilica of Our Lady in Hanswijk displays the largest collection of votive portraits of children in Flanders. A votive portrait is a painting presented to a particular devotional image for a very specific purpose: to ask the Virgin Mary or a local patron saint for lasting protection against illness and accident. Corporate Gifts to Heaven is a collaboration between Museum Hof van Busleyden, the Church Council of the Basilica of Our Lady of Hanswijk and the Conservation-Restoration Department of the University of Antwerp.
Mus_E
Museum Hof van Busleyden and Mus_E collaborate on a week of creative workshops together with Cultuurkuur, Villa Zonnebloem primary school, Sint-Pietersschool and artists Sophie Vanhomwegen and Raisa Vandamme. The results are featured in the Children of the Renaissance exhibition. Visitors see the historical portraits of children alongside the children’s own interpretations.
Soirée MuzE
A special Soirée MuzE lecture series accompanies the exhibition. The four lectures by Annemarieke Willemsen, Michiel Verweij, Jean-Jacques Cassiman and curator Samuel Mareel are broadcast by livestream.
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