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Photo: Michel wal, CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons
Features both historical art and modern art in the one building. In a vast museum of several buildings, this complex combines the Musée d'Art Ancien-Museum voor Oude Kunst and the Musée d'Art Moderne-Museum voor Moderne Kunst under one roof (connected by a passage). The collection shows off works, most of them Belgian, from the 14th to the 20th century, starting in the historical section, with Hans Memling's portraits from the late 15th century, which are marked by sharp lifelike details, works by Hiëronymus Bosch, and Lucas Cranach's Adam and Eve. You should particularly seek out the subsequent rooms featuring Pieter Brueghel, including his Adoration of the Magi. Don't miss his unusual Fall of the Rebel Angels, with grotesque faces and beasts. But don't fear, many of Brueghel's paintings, like those depicting Flemish village life, are of a less fiery nature. Later artists represented include Rubens, Van Dyck, Frans Hals, and Rembrandt. Next door, in a circular building connected to the main entrance, the modern art section has an emphasis on underground works - if only because the museum's eight floors are all below ground level. The collection includes works by van Gogh, Matisse, Dalí, Tanguy, Ernst, Chagall, Miró, and local boys Magritte, Delvaux, De Braekeleer and Permeke. Don't miss David's famous "Death of Marat."
The Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium are a group of art museums in Brussels, Belgium. They are part of the institutions of the Belgian Federal Science Policy Office (BELSPO) and consist of six museums: the Oldmasters Museum, the Magritte Museum, the Fin-de-Siècle Museum, the Modern Museum, the Wiertz Museum and the Meunier Museum.
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Part of the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium, this hosts a remarkable collection of paintings from the Old Masters, with masterpieces from Rogier van der Weyden, Petrus Christus, Drik Bouts, Hans Memling, Hieronymus Bosch and many others. For the 16th century, Pieter Bruegel the Elder is magnificently represented with major works like The Fall of the Rebel Angels or The Census at Bethlehem. The 17th and 18th centuries are covered by work from the Flemish School, represented by Peter Paul Rubens, Anthony van Dyck, and Jacques Jordaens, with minor works from the Italian and French schools on display as well. The majority of the collection originated during the French Revolution, when many works of art were seized by the occupying forces, works from religious institutions in particular. The museum was founded in 1801 by Napoleon Bonaparte himself, but it was only in 1830 after Belgium gained independence that the museum became a major institution. The last major addition to the collection dates from 1913, when de Grez donated over 4 000 works on paper dating from the 16th to 19th centuries, including works from Hendrick Goltzius, Jacques de Gheyn the Younger, and Rembrandt. Admission to the museum is free on the 1st Wednesday of each month.
Musée Fin-de-Siècle
The museum is dedicated to art of the period between 1868, when the Free Society of Fine Arts was founded in Brussels, and the outbreak of the First World War in 1914. The museum opened in 2013 and houses a collection of artworks from Constantin Meunier, James Ensor, Henri Evenepoel, Fernand Khnopff, Léon Spillaert and many others. It aims to celebrate the richness of the period in literature, architecture, photography, opera, music and poetry, featuring works by Maurice Maeterlinck, Emile Verhaeren, Octave Maus, Victor Horta, Henry Van de Velde, Maurice Kufferath, and Guillaume Lekeu. The artworks are grouped into 4 themes: Discovery of matter, in other eyes, Eruption of color, enchantment of light, New expressions, and Modernity. Free admission to the museum the 1st Wednesday of each month from 13:00.
This museum is dedicated to the life and art of the Belgian artist René Magritte. It holds a multidisciplinary collection containing more than 200 of Magritte's works. This is part of the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium: use the same entrance and ask for a ticket which includes the Magritte Museum.
Musée des Instruments de Musique/Muziekinstrumentenmuseum
The museum houses more than 7000 instruments, from all times and all over the world. The museum’s reputation is built on its extraordinary collection. The exhibits are displayed on four different floors featuring a wide range of instruments from all time periods and areas of the world. The MIM is a place to experience music. An infrared headphone system allows each visitor to enjoy the sound and melodies played by the instruments presented. The restaurant on the roof is also famous because of its panoramic view over Brussels. You need around 3 or 4 hours to really enjoy the whole museum, make sure you have enough time! The ornate façade of the building was decorated as such to promote the work of local tradesman and to protest the loss of jobs due to automation.
MEM
A small museum dedicated to the history of erotic art from antiquity until today. It is a private collection, one of the most attractive in Europe, housed in an 18th century house near the Sablon. On display are paintings, sculptures, Greco-roman antiquities, ivory, Japanese prints and other curiosities. The purpose of the museum is to show the existence of eroticism since the discovery of sexual pleasure by humankind. The museum is an initiative by Guy Martens in 2012, and a result of his life long passion for erotic art. The collection covers over 800 different pieces.
Église Saint-Jacques-sur-Coudenberg/Sint-Jacob-op-Koudenbergkerk
A neoclassical church on the historic King's Square, overlooking the lower city and offering a magnificent view over the Grand-Place (particularly at dusk!). It started as a medieval abbey church, which was demolished by Charles Alexander of Lorraine during his expansive urban planning projects, despite having escaped the great fire of 1731 that destroyed the nearby Coudenberg Palace. The church was designed by architect Gilles-Barnabé Guimard, and the first stone was laid down by Charles Alexander himself in 1776. After the building's consecration, it was used as an abbey- and parish church simultaneously, and in addition it was the official church of the court of the Governors of the Habsburg Netherlands. Since it was designed to serve the church of the abbey of Saint-Jacques, it has a deep extended choir with place for choir stalls for the monks. During the French Revolution, as with all other religious buildings, the abbey was suspended and the church converted into a Temple of Reason, but restored to Catholic control in 1802. It played an important role in the inception of the Belgian monarchy 30 years later, when the first Belgian king, Leopold I, made his oath on the front steps of the church. Although the building lost some of its typical neoclassical temple-like appearance by the addition of a bell tower in the 19th century and a coloured fresco on the pediment, it remains one of the most unusual examples of religious architecture in Brussels.