World – One of the greatest masterpieces of the Flemish Primitives is born to a new life thanks to a restoration that lasted five years. Shining with colors never seen in living memory, Death of the Virgin by Hugo van der Goes returns to the public in a major exhibition in theancient hospital of Brugesnow the seat of Memling Museum. From 28 October to 5 February, over seventy works gathered from all over Europe will dialogue with the jewel of van der Goes: paintings by great masters of the time – Hans Memling, Jan Provoost, Albrecht Bouts, Petrus Christus – but also sculptures, precious illuminated manuscripts and even musical pieces, selected to lead visitors into a suggestive experience of Face to face with deathwhich gives the exhibition its title.

Jan Provoost, Diptych with Christ Carrying the Cross and Portrait of a Friar Minor (back), 1522, Musea Brugge © Musea Brugge – Art in Flanders – Hugo Maertens

Six chapters, each with a different theme, will mark the path of the exhibition that moves in balance between past and present, updating the van der Goes painting with the contribution of six “new masters”. The artist Berlinde De Bruyckerethe poet and bestselling author Ilja Leonard Pfeijffer, the writer and doctor Sholeh Rezazadeh, the director and director of the International Theater in Amsterdam Ivo van Hove, the choreographer and dancer Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker were asked to explore a painting which, still today, it has the power to move, intrigue and inspire anyone who looks at it.

“Face to face with death”, exhibition at the Memling I Museum Courtesy VisitFlanders

After the restoration, Death of the Virgin reveals itself in all its beauty, doing justice to an artist, Hugo van der Goes, of whom very little is known, but who in his time was among the most sought after in Flanders along with Jan van Eyck and Hans Memling. Finally free from the patina of time, the painting offers a thousand details to the eye: from the faces of the apostles, wonderfully characterized one by one, to the architectural setting, up to the vibrant palette. But it doesn’t stop there.

Hugo van der Goes, Death of the Virgin Mary. Photo Dominique Provost I Courtesy Museums of Bruges

The restoration work represented an opportunity to deepen the knowledge of the style, iconography and creative processes of the Flemish master. The discoveries that emerged from these researches are an integral part of the exhibition, where the latest acquisitions on the Death of the Virgin they will feed on an innovative comparison with important works on loan from prestigious international museums.

Hans Memling (c.1433 – 1494), Diptych by Maarten van Nieuwenhove1487, Oil on oak panel, 41.5 x 52 cm (each panel), Bruges Sint Jaanshospitaal-Memlingmuseum

Read also:
• Hans Memling’s masterpieces with expert Till-Holger Borchert
• The oldest hospital in Europe: the Memling Museum in Bruges
• Bruges to discover: from the Flemish Primitives to the silent gardens
• When Bruges was the capital of international trade, like New York today