Hans Memling, one of the top masters amongst the Flemish primitives, worked on his influential oeuvre from Bruges some five centuries ago. With no fewer than nine works in the collection, Musea Brugge manages the second largest Memling collection in the world. It is a very important reference collection for all research on works by Hans Memling.
Musea Brugge has been awarded several project grants of over € 800,000 from the Flemish government. The museum will also invest €400,000 of own funds in the project.
The temporary closure of St John's Hospital presents an excellent opportunity to examine Memling's masterpieces on site without removing them from their permanent storage environment. The new technical images will provide a basis for in-depth research in the future.
The Royal Institute for Cultural Heritage (KIK) and UCLouvain will launch interdisciplinary research thanks to BELSPO's multi-year FED-tWIN programme. Within five years, a publication is planned in the renowned series Corpus of Flemish Primitives (Corpus des Primitifs flamands), entirely dedicated to the 15th-century collection of the St John's Hospital.
In the impressive attic of the medieval hospital, a multimedia and interactive total experience will bring Hans Memling's works to life thanks to digital storytelling.
The project also steps outside the museum walls: a new walking trail leads to places where the artist lived and worked in the 15th century. Finally, an online platform is also being developed for this Memling project to provide in-depth knowledge of the works of and research on this Flemish primitive.