Masterpieces of the Hermitage | The Great Flemings (Episode 3)

The seventeenth century marked the Golden Age of Flemish painting. Flemish painting occupies four rooms on the first floor in the New Hermitage. Being one of the largest collections in the world, it contains the works by Peter Paul Rubens, Anthony van Dyck, Jacob Jordaens and Frans Snyders, the famous artists of the 17th -century.

On the first floor of the New Hermitage is displayed more than 500 pictures by leading members of the Flemish school, including: Peter Paul Rubens, Anthony van Dyck, and Frans Snyders. Among the 20 masterpieces by Rubens are Perseus and Andromeda (1620-1621), Portrait of a Lady-in-Waiting to the Infanta Isabella (1623-1625), The Union of Earth and Water (Antwerp and the Scheldt) and Bacchus (1638-1640), as well as over 20 drawings.

The work of the celebrated Flemish portrait painter Anthony van Dyck is represented in the Hermitage by 24 paintings, most of which being displayed in the adjoining room. Large-scale paintings by Frans Snyders from the “Shops”series, the hunt scene paintings by Paul de Vos and “The Bean King” by Jacob Jordaens give an insight into the diversity of subject genres practiced by 17th-century Flemish masters.