Call for Justice

Call for Justice highlights the rich and fascinating interaction between art, the practice of law and the idea of justice in the territories governed by the Great Council of Mechelen when at the height of its powers. Works of art from the Burgundian Low Countries dating from the mid-fifteenth to mid-seventeenth century are situated within the turbulent legal, political and cultural context in which they were created: the unification of the Netherlands, the increasingly absolutist administration of Emperor Charles V, the Reformation and the uprising against Spain. Call for Justice reveals how these artworks make visible, and in a powerful way, one of the most universal of all human desires: the pursuit of justice. Including prestigious masterpieces by, amongst others, Quinten Matsys, Maarten van Heemskerck, Pieter Bruegel the Elder, Maarten de Vos, Peter Paul Rubens, Anthony van Dyck and Philippe de Champaigne. The publication accompanies the exhibition of the same name at the Museum Hof van Busleyden in Mechelen (23 March – 24 June 2018), which forms part of the city festival OP. RECHT. MECHELEN. The exhibition is organized in collaboration with the KMSKA., and is one of the most important exhibitions of spring 2018.