Home>Network
Belgium
Art Gardens

The ArtGarden research project tests and develops an efficient (“best practices”) matrix (tool – protocol) for monitoring, imaging and documenting (art-technical), fragile historic mixed media objects. This is used to facilitate decision making during conservation and preservation practice.

The casus in ArtGarden is the conservation and preservation of the unique collection of seven Enclosed Gardens from the Museum Hof van Busleyden. Their condition is similar to that of a vast number of museum objects kept in the Belgian Federal collections and even worldwide. Due to the mixed media nature of the Gardens this case study generates new know-how that can be applied to the conservation of other complex heritage objects. The aim is to develop ArtGarden as an international benchmarking project for conservation & preservation of original mixed media artefacts in museum environments.

Promotors of the research project are the Royal Institute for Cultural Heritage, KIK-IRPA, the University of Leuven – KU Leuven and the University of Antwerp, Axes.

Visit website
Blendeff.be

Blendeff is the new collection database of the KU Leuven art and science collections.

Visit website
Dirk Kennis - Early Medieval Art

Antwerp, Belgium

Visit website
Don Verboven Exquisite Objects

Brussels, Belgium

Visit website
MAS. Museum aan de Stroom

Antwerp, Belgium

Antwerp is a port city where the world has been mooring at the docks for centuries. The MAS collection is the place where city and world meet. 500,000 exhibits offer a varied perspective on the city and its age-old contacts with the world. Some of them are displayed in permanent and temporary exhibitions, but most are kept in storage. In the Visible Storage area, the MAS lifts a corner of the veil. For the really inquisitive, the MAS also has its entire collection on display online.

Collection database online

Visit website
Seghers & Pang Fine arts

Brussels, Belgium

Visit website
Steven Bouchaert

Menen, Belgium

Visit website
Wings & Links. Catalogue des retables anversois des années 1530-1540

The aim of the Wings & Links project, carried out at the Centre for the Study of Flemish Primitives of the Royal Institute for Cultural Heritage (KIK-IRPA) and funded by 'Politique fédérale scientifique' (BRAIN-be) between February 2016 and May 2018, was to reconsider the production of altarpieces in their complementarity, i.e. as ensembles, Gesamtkunstwerke, consisting of sculpted parts and painted panels. In this perspective, the research focused on a group of altarpieces integrating sculptures formerly attributed to Robert Moreau, a Parisian sculptor active in Antwerp between 1533 and 1540, and paintings given to the entourage of Pieter Coecke van Aelst. These altarpieces were brought together according to the criterion of the use of the same type of round-headed case with softly scrolled side profiles.

Visit website
BALaT

BALaT. Belgian Art Links and Tools

BALaT allows you to search 4 different databases simultaneously:

- KIK-IRPA's online photo library: 682767 photo negatives covering all aspects of Belgium's art heritage (visual arts, artistic crafts, architecture, archaeology and landscapes). Some of these photographs date from the end of the 19th century. This collection is constantly expanding thanks to new photographic campaigns and to the photographs of the works of art treated at the institute;

- KIK-IRPA's Library: 80000 books and articles related to cultural heritage (art history, conservation-restoration and scientific analyses). Every document (journal articles included) is indexed with a specialized thesaurus;

- The Dictionnaire des peintres belges du XIVesiècle à nos jours depuis les premiers maîtres des anciens Pays-Bas méridionaux et de la principauté de Liège jusqu'aux artistes contemporains(La Renaissance du Livre, Brussels, 1995): Covers the lives and work of no less than 6300 painters, from Van Eyck to Wilchar and passing by Rubens and Rops; from well-known to rather obscure representatives of Belgian painting;

- A repertory of persons and institutions. This list counts 200000 artists, craftsmen, researchers, authors of publications, conservator-restorers, photographers, collectors, historical or fictional figures represented in the works of art, museums, churches, learned societies, etc..

Visit website
Begijnhofmuseum Turnhout

Turnhout, Belgium

Collection database online

Visit website