Meet centuries-old neighbours at Mechelen’s newest museum
The new Museum Hof van Busleyden relates centuries-old habits with their modern counterparts and brings the Burgundian age to life
Old is new again
The museum takes an innovative approach, forgoing the usual chronological or object-oriented presentation. Instead, its collection is displayed in thematic rooms that alternate with spaces focused on present-day Mechelen and its inhabitants. Through association and analogy, the museum suggests parallels between the Burgundian period and contemporary concerns.
For managing director Anouk Stulens, this tension between history and modernity is key to the museum’s mission. “What’s the function of a museum?” she asks. “Of course, you have your educational mission, but it’s also important to bring the city into the museum, to make it relevant today. The themes of the Burgundian age are still relevant.”
Handshake across centuries
For instance, one of the first rooms addresses the theme of social connections, exploring the various groups and guilds that made up civic life in the 16th century. This is followed by a space devoted to Mechelen’s present-day citizens and the bonds they create.
Three different groups are featured: a puppeteer who carries on a family tradition, an organisation that welcomes refugees and a bobbin lace club that’s keeping an historic craft alive. The groups represented in the space will rotate over time, giving a wide range of residents and organisations in Mechelen the opportunity to tell their stories.
The museum is housed in a former Burgundian mansion that was home to a 16th-century judge, clergyman, humanist and collector named Hieronymus van Busleyden. At the time, Mechelen was also home to Margaret of Austria, Charles V’s aunt, who was Governor of the Low Countries under the Hapsburgs from 1507 to 1530.
It was a place with collections, for meeting, for discussion. All these historic functions are still present-day functions
By then, the city had also been the juridical capital of the Netherlands since 1473, when the highest court in the land was installed here. For the design of the new museum, directors and curators took as their starting point the original uses of the building.
“What was its function in the 15th and 16th centuries? And how does it link with the function of the museum today?” asks Stulens. “We have some obvious connections. It was a place with collections – Hieronymus van Busleyden had his collections here – a place for meeting, a place of discussion. All these historic functions are still present-day functions.”
Museum Hof van Busleyden aims to be a gathering spot for the residents of Mechelen as well as visitors from outside the city. It’s literally a place for people to meet through the usual avenues of exhibitions, lectures and special events, but it also brings people together to work on the issues confronting currently confronting the city and society at large.
Fantastic beasts and where to find them
One of the more unusual rooms in the museum is devoted to a five-year project called De Grond der Dingen (The Ground of Things). Local theatre company Arsenaal/Lazarus has bequeathed each resident of the city a symbolic square metre of land to do with as they please.
People can submit their own proposals or donate their land to other proposals. At the end of the project, the city has promised 20,000 square metres to realise some of the ideas.
Themes of justice, power and wealth in the Hapsburg Netherlands are explored through works of art from the museum’s own collection as well as loans from other Flemish museums and abroad. Included in the current installation is the only known portrait of Hieronymous van Busleyden himself, on temporary loan from the Wadsworth Atheneum in Hartford, Connecticut.
Visitors also learn about Mechelen’s history as a centre of artistic patronage and craftsmanship. An entire room is devoted to poupées de Malines, devotional statues carved in wood and painted in bright colours and gold. These were so popular in the 16th century that they were, in effect, mass produced and exported all over the world.
They present a bewildering array of minute detail, like a grown-up version of a child’s shoebox shadow theatre
One of the highlights of the Hof van Busleyden is the illuminated choir book commissioned by Margaret of Austria from Petrus Alamire, one of the leading composers of polyphonic music in all of Europe. In the room where it is displayed, visitors can hear a recording of the compositions in the manuscript, thanks to a partnership with the Alamire Foundation.
The visit culminates with Mechelen’s famed Besloten Hofjes, or Enclosed Gardens. These retables were created in the 16th century as three-dimensional devotional objects combining painting, sculpture, textiles, relics and gemstones.
They present a bewildering array of minute detail and painstaking handicraft, like a grown-up version of a child’s shoebox shadow theatre, complete with fantastic beasts and exotic flora.
In December, Museum Hof van Busleyden will host an exhibition by Ghent-based artist Berlinde De Bruyckere of works inspired by the Enclosed Gardens. One of her pieces can already be seen alongside its 16th-century precursors, old and new co-existing comfortably in the same historic space.
Photos: The Museum Hof van Busleyden is housed in a 16th-century mansion (top); detail of an enclosed garden retable (above)
©Courtesy Hof van Busleyden
