Palace becomes Flemish showcase

Buckingham Palace opens its ornate gates to the public Friday for an exhibition that showcases 51 of the finest Flemish paintings in the Royal Collection, hoarded over centuries by British monarchs.

For the first time the Queen’s Gallery has brought together treasures by the likes of Rubens, Bruegel and Van Dyck to tell the tale of European art’s secret massacres and royal embarrassments.

The exhibition “Bruegel to Rubens: Masters of Flemish Painting” of 15th to 17th century paintings illustrates the turbulent period when Flanders, the region that makes up parts of modern-day Belgium, Holland and France, staged a bloody and drawn-out revolt against Spanish rule.