“...With approximately 130 works from The Phoebus Foundation and an additional 60 works from PEM’s collection that reflect the global ambitions and interconnectedness of Europeans at the time, Saints, Sinners, Lovers, and Fools takes visitors on a journey to the Southern Netherlands, setting the scene of this fascinating region and its culture and politics. Antwerp, on the river Scheldt, was the most important port in Northern Europe and a strategic hub for trade and finance. Major cosmopolitan Flemish cities, such as Bruges and Ghent, became home to Europe’s intellectual and business elite. “Flemish painters from the 15th to 17th centuries created extraordinary works of art amid a period of political turmoil and unprecedented prosperity,” said Karina H. Corrigan, PEM’s Associate Director–Collections and the H. A. Crosby Forbes Curator of Asian Export Art, who serves as the coordinating curator of the exhibition at PEM. “Saints, Sinners, Lovers, and Fools will transport visitors to this remarkable time in history and consider the many ways Flemish art and culture has shaped the world we live in today...”
