Museum Mayer van den Bergh — Attraction in Antwerp

Antwerp is a great destination if you enjoy smaller museums with collections of early Netherlandish artworks. One of the great collections can be found at Museum Mayer van den Bergh. Note that if you also intend to visit Rubenshuis, and you should, you can avail of a combo ticket which includes entrance into both museums.

This museum is the residence of Fritz Mayer van den Bergh, the late 19th century collector of fine art, whose collection demonstrates his knowledge, tastes and appreciation for art from the Low Countries that was ahead of his time.

Mayer van den Bergh was particularly interested in the works of the Pieter Brueghel the Elder and you can see two of his works 'Twelve Proverbs of Wooden Plates' and the masterpiece known as Mad Meg (1561) here in Room 5. Mad Meg is a remarkable painting that very much shows the influence Hieronymus Bosch had on period artists like Brueghel. Its a astonishing artwork that is very enjoyable to look over.

You can also see outstanding works from the Middle Ages and Renaissance periods, such as the triptych Temptation of St. Anthony (c. 1510) credited to the Master of Saints' Figures from Bruges, the Pieter Huys - Temptation of St. Anthony (1577) and Christ Carrying the Cross (c. 1540) by a follower of Hieronymus Bosch.

There are also impressive Baroque, landscape and still Life paintings as well as sculptures to view in this well curated museum. All fifteen rooms are filled with lovely artworks that are enjoyable to view.

In all, you can easily spend a couple hours here enjoying the works. If short on time, 30 minutes should be fine to view the highlights or stay much longer if you like what you are seeing. When you find yourself in places like Museum Mayer van den Bergh, it often best to just take your time to look over the artworks, find pieces that you really like and just...

-2 stars for the museum for the service and the organizational part of the staff. We were a group of 15 students of a university and we arrived 4 minutes before the museum opened. At the moment when we arrived a staff member was taking the garbage out so we asked if it was possible for us to wait inside until the museum opens as it pouring and extremely windy. The staff consulted with someone inside and said we cannot come in even to the lobby because the security was not there yet. At the end we were allowed to wait the other 3 minutes in the lobby between the entry door. 16 people crammed into a space of probably 3 square meters. After we were allowed to enter the the staff treated us as a group of children explaining how the lockers work etc. It was also super crowded because another large group arrived at 10 and it was even more crowded and messy in the hallway.

We got a tour which was very good and the museum itself if also interesting to visit. Some interesting object of arts, but if you only have a limited number of days in Antwerp, this museum would not be in my...

Frits Mayer van den Bergh was lucky to start his collection when at that time there was little to no interest in the paintings of Bruegel and simular artist. The collection grew quite fast by acquiring the collection through auctions the heritage of other collectors. As he died quite yong, his mother had to realise his dream of building a museum for his collection. Many of the top collection is normally shown in the Antwerp Museum of fine arts, but during the remodeling of the latter museum the collection can be seen in his former surroundings as a temporary collection. Although the permanent collection is a must, this temporary collection is even more astonishing as Jan Van Eyck, Quinten Metsys, Rogier Van Der Weyden and Fouquet compete for your eyes (and ears -...