Within the framework of the city festival Baroque Influencers, the exhibition Jesuits, Rubens and the arts of persuasion, will be held on three locations: Museum Snijders&Rockoxhuis, the galleries of St Charles Borromeo Church, and the Nottebohm Hall of the Heritage Library Hendrik Conscience.
To win over their public, the Jesuits developed a unique visual culture. The city festival Baroque Influencers shows how the leading figures in Antwerp in the long seventeenth-century thought, dreamed, worked and prayed. The exhibition gathers devotional prints, etchings and books from the collections of several heritage institutions, including the Ruusbroec Society. A series of unique ‘affixiones’ (painted canvases from the patrimony of St Charles Borromeo Church) will also be on display.
At the request of the Jesuits, Peter Paul Rubens created thirty-nine ceiling paintings in St Charles Borromeo Church. These paintings were lost during the fire of 1718. During Baroque Influencers, that lost art treasure will be brought back to life at Museum Snijders&Rockoxhuis, with art works by Peter Paul Rubens, Jacob de Wit and Daniel Seghers on display.
On the occasion of Baroque Influencers, there will also be a reconstruction of the rich interior of the Sodality in the Nottebohm Hall of the Hendrik Conscience Heritage Library. Until 1773, the site of the current Nottebohm Hall was home to a beautifully decorated baroque chapel of the Sodality that featured many dozens of paintings and a marble wall covering.
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From 22 April until 16 July 2023 at St Charles Borromeo Church and Museum Snijders&Rockoxhuis
From 22 April until 10 September 2023 at Hendrik Conscience Heritage Library