The Snijders& A surprising museum in the heart of

Visitors guide

Frans Snijders and were key figures in 17th-century Antwerp. Frans as a painter of animals and still lifes, Nicolaas as burgomaster.

THE SNIJDERS&ROCKOX HOUSE A surprising museum in the heart of Antwerp OUR LENDERS Private collectors Centraal Museum Utrecht Frey-Näplin Stiftung Stans Museo Nacional delPrado Museum derbildendenKünste Leipzig M Museum Leuven Museumlandschaft Hessen Musée deFlandre Cassel Belgian National Lottery Royal Museums ofFine ofBelgium Arts Groeninge Museum Bruges MuseumVleeshuis Rubens House The Phoebus Foundation MAS Maagdenhuis Museum Royal Museum ofFine Arts Antwerp We are extremely grateful toallour lenders: THE SNIJDERS&ROCKOX HOUSE A surprising museum in the heart of Antwerp

Visitors Guide CONTENTS

THE SNIJDERSHOUSE

FIRST FLOORLANDING THE ROCKOXHOUSE ENTRANCE HALL ROOMS 6AND7 ROOMS 4AND5 THE GARDEN REST AREA CORRIDOR ROOM 10 ROOM 2 ROOM 8 ROOM 1 ROOM 3 ROOM 9

Voorcamer straete aende Twaschhuys Tgroot achter camer De Salet Tgroot Salet Salette Cleyn De Bovencamer Neercamer Fortuyne De Keucken D en Gulden Rinck en Gulden –Eatinganddrinking –Huntingandfishing –Collecting

–Leisure andentertainment –Birds andstilllifes – Burgomaster –Music –Nature

172 170 158 144 141 120 119 98 96 76 36 34 12 10 6 Nicolaas Rockox and Frans Snijders were key figures in Antwerp during the era. Each made his mark on the city’s cultural and social life – Nicolaas as burgomaster and Frans as a brilliant painter of animals and still lifes. They were also neighbours for 20 years, occupying adjacent patricians’ houses in the Keizerstraat.

Following The Golden Cabinet – the successful collaboration with the Royal Museum of Fine Arts Antwerp from 2013 to 2017 – KBC

FOREWORD is now opening the Snijders&Rockox House. Both buildings, painstakingly restored, are part of the heritage of KBC, which inaugurated the Rockox House as a museum back in 1977. The Rockox House concept has been carefully examined and redefined and the Snijders House added to it. The everyday world of 17th-century citizens is evoked by artworks from the museum’s own rich collection, supplemented by longer-term loans from museums and private collections in and abroad.

We get to view Nicolaas and Frans’s domestic environment through their own eyes, along with the making and promotion of art, collecting and display, games and leisure, markets and richly set tables, nature and gardens, and the humanist and the average citizen in the turbulent era in which they lived. They are also hosting another patrician family, namely the De Duartes. These were renowned jewellers, but it was above all their musical talents that attracted their contemporaries’ admiration. The Snijders&Rockox House is a place to celebrate!

We wish you a wonderful journey of discovery!

THE SNIJDERS&ROCKOX HOUSE | 5 ENTRANCE HALL

Frans Snijders (Antwerp, 1579–1657) Pantry with Dogs and a Cow’s Head Oil on canvas Private collection (through the Rubens House)

Cave Canem! Beware the dog! But most of all, welcome to the Snijders&Rockox House.

This is Snijders all over! The dog in the pantry looks like it’s just come back from the hunt. Its collar, designed to protect it from the sharp teeth of a wild boar, lies on the table, along with a new prize, a flayed cow’s head. You’ll find out all about Snijders, his animals, hunts, still-lifes and pantries in the home of the master him