Michaelina Wautier, an exceptionally talented Baroque woman and artist, stars in her first monographic exhibition. In Antwerp

Scheduled from June 1 to September 2, 2018, at the dual venues of the Museum aan de Stroom (MAS) and the Rubenshuis in Antwerp, the exhibition Michaelina is intended to turn the spotlight on the figure of Michaelina Wautier (Mons, 1617 - Brussels, 1689), an important Baroque painter of exceptional talent and among the very few women artists of her time. She is an artist about whom we know very little, as there are few records of her existence: we know that her older brother was the painter Charles Wautier, that she lived in Brussels for a long time, and that she never married. Otherwise, we are left with her masterpieces: there are about thirty known works by Michaelina.

What distinguished Michaelina Wautier from other women artists of the time was her exceptional versatility: in fact, Michaelina was able to express herself at her best on a large number of genres (from portraits to genre scenes, from large history paintings to sacred paintings), working on both large-format and smaller works. Among the works the public will be able to admire in Antwerp are the enigmatic Portrait of a Young Man from 1653, on loan from the Flemish city’s Museum of Fine Arts, the Mystic Marriage of St. Catherine from 1649, kept at the Grand Séminaire in Namur and restored for the exhibition, and the monumental Triumph of Bacchus from the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna, one of the works from which the talent of this great artist, who also demonstrated considerable knowledge of male anatomy, best emerges: “only at the end of the nineteenth century,” points out curator Katlijne van der Stighelen, “were women allowed to enter the Academies, in separate classes and with a nude model equipped, however, with opaque tights. Instead, this woman painted a work made mostly of naked men in the 17th century. It’s incredible!”

The exhibition, the first monographic exhibition ever dedicated to Michaelina Wautier, is the result of several years of research by Katlijne van der Stighelen, an art historian at the Catholic University of Leuven, and was produced in collaboration with the Rubenshuis in Antwerp. Visiting hours: Tuesday through Sunday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. (closed Monday). Tickets: full price 10 euros, reduced 8 euros (over 65, children and young people aged 12 to 26, students, disabled, groups of at least 12 people). Free for children under 12, carers of the disabled, Baroque Festival Card holders. For all info you can visit www.antwerpbaroque2018.be.

Pictured: Michaelina Wautier, Triumph of Bacchus (ca. 1655; oil on canvas, 295 x 378 cm; Vienna, Kunsthistorisches Museum)

Michaelina Wautier, an exceptionally talented Baroque woman and artist, stars in her first monographic exhibition. In Antwerp

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