Portrait of Duchess Engelbert Maria of Arenberg, Guyla Benczur, 1900 © Bruno Vandermeulen – KU Leuven

LEUVEN.- For five centuries, the Arenberg family belonged to the highest nobility of the Low Countries. The combination of their power, financial wealth and love for art and culture resulted in a number of collections that are impressive because of their extent as well as their quality. The exhibition ‘Power and Beauty. The Arenbergs’ in M-Museum Leuven brings together more than 230 artworks and documents that were never shown before in a unique reunion that tells the story of the Arenbergs. The exhibition ‘Noble Living. The Castle at Heverlee from Croÿ to Arenberg’ opens its doors at the University Library at the same moment. It tells the remarkable architectural history of the Arenberg Castle in Heverlee by displaying numerous exceptional pieces that were never shown before. 

Power and Beauty. The Arenbergs, M-Museum Leuven 
A once-in-a-lifetime reunion of august names like Rubens, Jordaens, Veronese, Vivaldi and Dürer 
The Arenbergs are already part of the highest nobility since the 16th century. The family left their mark on Europe as generals and diplomats, but also as entrepreneurs and lovers of art. The exhibition at M-Museum Leuven highlights these different facets by means of foreign as well as Belgian artworks and documents that were never shown before. Visitors will get a picture of the weal and woe of a famous noble family, their politic and military fate, economic impact, cosmopolitan life style and their extraordinary interest for art and culture. 

Frans Pourbus de Jonge, Portrait de famille de Karel van Arenberg et Anna van Croy avec cinq de leurs douze enfants. © KU Leuven Digitalisering

Atelier Anthony van Dyck, Equestrian portrait of Albrecht van Arenberg. KU Leuven, Kunstpatrimonium © KU Leuven - Bruno Vandermeulen.

Guyla Benczur, Portrait of Hertogin Engelbert Maria van Arenberg, née Hedwige de Ligne, 1900 © Bruno Vandermeulen – KU Leuven.

International art collection 
The art collection of the Arenbergs was scattered in the course of the 20th century. You can find artworks with the quality mark Arenberg all over the world in museums and private collections such as the National Portrait Gallery in London, the Metropolitan Museum in New York and the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna. The exhibition at M-Museum Leuven reunites a select number of pieces from the fomer Arenberg collection for the first time. Masterpieces, by among others, Rubens, Veronese, Dürer and Jordaens are alternated with preciosa and archive documents, such as a never-shown-before hand-written score by Vivaldi and the parchment scroll Rouleau d'Arenberg. Finally, the exhibition presents a collection of ball gowns, masquerade costumes and precious interior textiles from the Arenberg family. 

Curators: Peter Carpreau (M – Museum Leuven), Mark Derez and Anne Verbrugge (KU Leuven).

Frans Floris (1517-1570), The Awakening of the Arts, circa 1560. Oil on canvas, 161.9 x 238.7 cm. © Ponce, Museo de Arte.

The Somerset House Conference, 1604, by unknown artist. Oil on canvas, 205.7 x 268 cm. © London, National Portrait Gallery.

Jan Brueghel the Elder, Village Landscape with Figures Preparing to Depart, 1613–1617, oil on copper,21 x 28 cm © London, Guildhall Art Gallery

Paolo Veronese and workshop, Christ and the Samaritan woman, around 1585. © Kunsthistorisches Museum Wien

Paolo Veronese and workshop, Lot and his daughters, around 1585. © Kunsthistorisches Museum Wien

Peter Paul Rubens, Portrait of a young girl with curly hair, 1618-1620. © Los Angeles, Hammer Museum

Bernard van Orley and atelier, Honor (part of Los Honores), design before 1520; woven between 1525 and 1532. © Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

Imperial charter of Maximilian II that elevates the county of Arenberg to a royal county, 5 march 1576. © Private collection.

Pierre de Bersacques, The Castle in Heverlee, 1596 © Bruno Vandermeulen - KU Leuven

Antonio Vivaldi, S'odo quel rio che mormora, aria from the opera L'inganno triomfante in amore, Venezia, 1725, Enghien Arenberg Foundation. © KU Leuven - photo Bruno Vandermeulen

Indo-European bedspread or colcha with the history of Phaeton, Arion and the life and works of Hercules, Bengal, Hugli region, first half of the 17th century, Private collection. © KU Leuven Imagine Lab.

KU Leuven, Kunstpatrimonium. © KU Leuven – Stany Dederen

KU Leuven, Kunstpatrimonium. © KU Leuven – Stany Dederen

KU Leuven, Kunstpatrimonium. © KU Leuven – Stany Dederen

KU Leuven, Kunstpatrimonium. © KU Leuven – Stany Dederen

KU Leuven, Kunstpatrimonium. © KU Leuven – Stany Dederen

Masquerade costume, Brussels, before 1783. KU Leuven, Kunstpatrimonium. © KU Leuven – Stany Dederen

KU Leuven, Kunstpatrimonium. © KU Leuven – Stany Dederen

Noble Living, University Library KU Leuven 
An exceptional insight into the Arenberg Castle 
At the same moment on a stone’s throw from M-Museum Leuven, the exhibition ‘Noble Living. The Castle at Heverlee from Croÿ to Arenberg’ opens its doors. The exhibition does not only shine light on the unique architectural history of the castle, but also on the architectural dreams of its illustrious residents. 

As a visitor you will immediately be taken back in time when you enter. Through an immersive installation with image and sound, you experience the life at the castle and the different stages of its construction. 

The life at the castle at the beginning of the 20th century, with its complex organization in upstairs and downstairs, is evoked with unique photographs from private and university archives. 

The highlights of this exhibition include the 'Albums van Croÿ' with precious paintings on parchment, a 'blue' view of the city of Beaumont, a miniature illuminated manuscript by Petrus Angeli and a hitherto unknown graduale with choir songs from the beginning of the sixteenth century. Curators: Krista De Jonge and Sanne Maekelberg (KU Leuven).

Arenberg Castle Heverlee.

Arenberg Castle Heverlee. © Rob Stevens - KU Leuven.