Every exhibition project originates from an encounter. Brueghel.
The Spirit of Collecting developed out of an encounter between Brun Fine Art and De Jonckheere, two galleries with distinct histories and areas of expertise, brought together by a shared way of looking at art. Here, De Jonckheere’s longstanding expertise in Flemish painting meets Brun Fine Art’s research on sculpture and the decorative arts. Their encounter engendered a common narrative in which paintings and objects illuminate one another while preserving their individual identities.
The world of the Brueghels offered an ideal starting point. In their paintings, the real world is observed with tireless attention; every composition contains a multiplicity of stories, figures and details. Their works invite us to linger, to seek and to recognise. It is this way of looking that shaped the exhibition.
The Brueghels transform the ordinary into the extraordinary. The simplest scenes of everyday life – a rural festival, a village, a landscape – open up to a world of details and meanings, inviting the viewer to stop and notice ever new correspondences. This richness of interpretation, combined with an extraordinary attention to detail, continues to fascinate collectors today.
The spirit of collecting evoked by the title develops out of this same way of looking: curiosity, the pleasure of discovery and the desire to make connections between different things. The reference to the Wunderkammer does not seek to reconstruct a historical collection, but rather evokes the freedom to bring together works of different periods, materials and traditions. Paintings, sculptures and works of decorative art are therefore juxtaposed, bringing out correspondences of subject, form and material – some immediate, others more subtle.
The exhibition took shape work by work, in a constant dialogue. Some connections made themselves felt naturally; others emerged over time, out of a detail, a material or an unexpected affinity. This was perhaps the most rewarding aspect of the entire experience: seeing the project take a shape that neither of the two galleries could have foreseen in isolation.
The exhibition ultimately comes to life through the visitor’s gaze. Bringing the paintings of the Brueghels together with sculpture and decorative arts creates an open conversation, inviting every viewer to discover affinities, allusions and meanings for themselves.
The pages that follow present in-depth discussions of the exhibition’s two sets of works in the essays by Carlotta Striolo on painting and by Enrico Colle on the decorative arts, accompanied by entries on individual pieces written by leading scholars and experts in their respective fields.
With this catalogue, we invite the reader to follow the same path: to observe, compare, question and allow room for surprise. For collecting is primarily a way of looking at the world.
Brun Fine Art and De Jonckheere
