A Golden Age of Artistic Innovation

Art enthusiasts around the world are very familiar with the Italian Renaissance, and the Dutch Golden Age is also well known, but far less attention has been paid to the rich history and significance of the critical artistic era in Flanders, the northern area of what is now Belgium. From the 15th to the 17th centuries, something equally thrilling and transformative was happening in the region: a dynamic period of social, scientific, and economic development that spurred artistic innovation and excellence that still resonate today. 

The immense creative talent and inventiveness of the artists of the southern Netherlands during the mediaeval, Renaissance, and baroque periods is showcased in Saints, Sinners, Lovers, and Fools: 300 Years of Flemish Masterworks (SSLF), running at ROM from June 28, 2025, to January 18, 2026.

Drawing from the Phoebus Foundation’s world-class collection of Flemish art and co-organized with the Denver Art Museum in collaboration with the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, the exhibition offers a whirlwind tour of Flanders from 1400 to 1700 through the lens of the most prominent artists of the era—including Peter Paul Rubens, Anthony van Dyck, and Hans Memling.

“Visitors will be transported through 300 years of one of the most exciting times in our history, when artists were discovering new techniques and subjects and creating images that ended up influencing artists for generations to come—all the way up to the present,” says Chloé M. Pelletier, Curator of European Art (Before 1800) at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts and guest curator of the presentation at ROM.

Featuring over 80 rarely exhibited artworks, including large-scale oil paintings, decorative art objects, and detailed bronze sculptures, SSLF explores themes that have fascinated humankind for centuries—and reveals this period’s integral role in shaping the world we live in.

“Imagine stepping into a time machine and landing in cities like Antwerp, Bruges, and Ghent during the late Middle Ages and Renaissance. These cities were the New York, London, and Toronto of their time—vibrant trade hubs brimming with creativity, ambition, and plenty of human drama,” says lead curator Dr. Katharina Van Cauteren, Executive Director and Chief of Staff at the Phoebus Foundation.

“The artists there weren’t just creating beautiful things; they were visual storytellers, entrepreneurial pioneers who understood that compelling visuals could help sell ideas. And if you think about it, we’re still using their visual storytelling techniques today—every time you’re scrolling through Instagram or binge-watching Netflix, you’re tapping into that legacy of Flemish innovation.”

With Flemish art being a focus of the Antwerp-based Phoebus Foundation, an exhibition such as SSLF had long been a dream project for Van Cauteren. But it took a “wonderful, slightly crazy coincidence” that sparked the partnership with the Denver Art Museum to make the touring presentation a reality. During a trip to Colorado to visit her best friend, Van Cauteren was so taken by the museum that she immediately sent an email suggesting a collaboration.

“It felt a bit like fate, honestly. And when we decided to approach this exhibition, we did it with the same boldness. The Flemish masters themselves were visionaries, constantly exploring new themes, inventing fresh genres, and pioneering groundbreaking artistic styles,” Van Cauteren says.

“In designing the scenography, we wanted to honour that innovative spirit. From the moment you step into the exhibition, you’re transported back in time into a world filled with spectacle and drama, reflecting the glamour and storytelling genius of the baroque era and artists like Rubens and his contemporaries."

Since its 2022 debut in Denver, SSLF has also travelled to Dallas, Salem, and Montreal, drawing hundreds of thousands of visitors to experience the remarkable works of the Flemish Golden Age.

“Each new stop has sparked fresh conversations—but Toronto? This city doesn’t just welcome bold ideas—it runs with them,” Van Cauteren says.

Pelletier notes that curating the exhibition in different venues has allowed for unique forms of storytelling by highlighting the various themes found in the paintings and objects, rather than simply focusing on one artist or style.

The goal is to give people accessible entry points into the stories that are being told through these artworks and the different characters that you’ll encounter when you walk through the gallery,” she says.

Divided into thematic sections, the exhibition delves into the motifs and stylistic modes that underscored the Flemish Golden Age—a time marked by profound change and a flourishing of the arts, says Dr. Angela Glover, an instructor at the University of Toronto specializing in early modern art from Northern Europe. During this era, wealthy art collectors from Flanders’ ruling kingdoms—first Burgundy, then Spain—commissioned plenty of work by Flemish artists.

“Artists began inventing new themes and styles to appeal to their new patrons,” Glover says. “The originality and creativity at this time led to some unexpected new themes, some of which eventually became more conventional and some of which still surprise viewers today.”

SSLF opens with Flanders’s role as a cosmopolitan centre of commerce and culture. Artists in cities like Bruges, Ghent, and Antwerp began producing influential works of art, such as Jan Wildens’s Panoramic View of the City of Antwerp across the River Scheldt. “The world was becoming connected through trade, colonial exploits, and travel. And art was a really important commodity that flowed along those routes,” Pelletier says.

The exquisite religious art of the 15th and early 16th centuries is also showcased, revealing how the Flemish used spiritual symbolism throughout their imagery. This is exemplified through the work of Hans Memling, one of the foremost artists of the era, says Heather Coffey, Assistant Professor at OCAD University. Coffey, who researches and teaches medieval and Renaissance art and architecture, points to Memling’s striking devotional painting The Nativity as a key example not only of the compositions of the time but also of the oil-painting technique pioneered by Flemish artists.

“Memling exploited oil painting to achieve virtuosic illusionistic effects and naturalistic detail. Ground pigments were suspended in a slow-drying binding oil and applied in superimposed transparent glazes with the utmost delicacy and precision, creating a breathtakingly luminous painted surface seemingly devoid of brushstrokes—almost as if Memling were never there,” Coffey says. “His masterful application captures the palpable softness of hair, seamless gradations of colour, and minute imperfections of skin.”

That method of oil painting which renders an image almost lifelike remains foundational today, Glover adds. “Prior to the 15th century, tempera paint was most commonly used in Europe. Its colours are vibrant but opaque, so the effects it can achieve are quite different than the astonishing verisimilitude that’s made possible by using oil paint, which allows the building up of paint in translucent layers,” she notes.

Oil painting is also at the heart of how self-representation through portraiture became a key part of the Flemish artistic renaissance, including some of the earliest commissioned images of middle-class people. As an example, Van Cauteren references the largescale Double Portrait of a Couple by Jan Sanders van Hemessen for how movingly it captures intimacy.

“I like to compare the portraits to the way that we take selfies today. We don’t always represent ourselves authentically. We represent ourselves the way we want to be seen,” Pelletier says. “And portraits of that time are doing the exact same thing. The artists are working to show us who the subjects want to be remembered as.”

Reverential themes give way to humour as sinful or foolish behaviours are captured in slyly clever works such as Rebus: The World Feeds Many Fools, a riddle painting by Jan Massijs that is packed with visual puzzles.

And the revival of Greco-Roman art and culture comes to life through the most monumental artwork in the exhibition by the best-known artist of the era: Peter Paul Rubens’s Diana Hunting with Her Nymphs, a massive oil painting of the goddess Diana chasing prey with a spear in hand, commissioned by Spanish king Philip IV.

“These artists understood the power of the image long before cinema was invented, and they wielded it with all the panache of a blockbuster director,” Van Cauteren says, adding that while the female artists of the era are often overlooked, painters such as Michaelina Wautier also played a major role.

“I often say Rubens is Spielberg and van Dyck is Tarantino—one grand and operatic, the other razor-sharp and psychological. But where it might take them two hours to tell a story, these painters did it in a single glance!”

SSLF’s tour of the Flemish Golden Age wraps up with a visit to a Wunderkammer, or cabinet of curiosities, illustrating how the notion of art collecting came to inform the concept of the modern museum or gallery.

“These artworks speak to universal experiences: the fear of death or the love for a child. Even though they were created centuries ago, nothing fundamental has changed, and that realization fascinates me every single time,” Van Cauteren says. “Flemish art, at its core, is about you and me— about what it means to be human, whether you’re standing in a cathedral in Antwerp or in a museum in Toronto.”

Tabassum Siddiqui is Communications Manager at ROM.