Nicolaas Rockoxhuis was a 17th-century Antwerp celeb: lawyer and burgomaster (city councillor), dedicated patron of the arts and humanist intellectual. His lovely house has a gem of a courtyard garden and, although most of Rockox' Rubens commissions are now in the hands of big-ticket institutions like the Prado and London's National Gallery, his collection gathered here contains works by Wildens, Van Dyck, Pieter Brueghel the Younger and, yes, Rubens.
While the KMSKA gallery is closed, many of its treasures are also on display here, including Jean Fouquet's striking c.1450s 'fashion-forward' Madonna and the sublime Jan van Eyck brush drawing on oak of St Barbara. This combined collection is entitled The Golden Cabinet, and works are hung closely together as they would have been in Rockox' time – fascinating in itself.
