Call for Justice
Museum Hof van Busleyden - 23 March 2018 August to 24 June 2018
Call for Justice. Art and law in the Burgundian Netherlands was the opening exhibition for the museum and the culmination of the OP.RECHT.MECHELEN. city festival.
The exhibition highlighted the rich and fascinating interaction between art, the practice of law and the concept of justice. The historical focus was on areas under the jurisdiction of the Great Council of Mechelen in its heyday from the mid-15th to the mid-17th century.
In this period, a significant number of Dutch principalities were united by the Dukes of Burgundy. Subsequently, the Netherlands became part of an absolutist world empire under Emperor Charles V. As a result of the Reformation and the Revolt against Spain, the region split into two parts, which then evolved into two separate political entities.
The exhibition was structured around three themes: equity, jurisprudence and injustice. Artworks depicting law and justice in the Netherlands were brought together and placed in the legal, historical and cultural context in which they originated. At the same time, the exhibition aimed to demonstrate how these artworks produced a powerful revelation of one of the most universal human desires: the pursuit of justice and the complex confrontation of that desire with reality.
Curator of Call for Justice
Samuel Mareel (Museum Hof van Busleyden), Ellen Goetstouwers (KMSKA), Elsje Janssen (KMSKA) and Manfred Sellink (KMSKA).
Publication of Call for Justice
Published in conjunction with the exhibition was a catalogue titled Call for Justice. Art and Law in the Burgundian Netherlands.
Expo Partners
This exhibition featured prestigious masterpieces by artists such as Quinten Massijs, Maarten van Heemskerck, Pieter Bruegel de Oude, Maerten de Vos, Peter Paul Rubens, Antoon van Dyck and Philippe de Champaigne. These works were on loan from museums such as the Prado and the Patrimonio Nacional in Madrid, the Gemäldegalerie in Berlin, the Ashmolean museum in Oxford and national and international private collections.
This exhibition was made possible through the collaborative efforts of OP.RECHT.MECHELEN., Museum Hof van Busleyden and the Royal Museum of Fine Arts Antwerp. Insurance was provided by IC Verzekeringen.
