Recent News

Lezing: “De Besloten Hofjes van Mechelen”

Professor en conservator-restaurateur Lieve Watteeuw onthult alles wat we kunnen leren van Besloten Hofjes: mystieke mixed-media retabelkasten uit de tijd van Karel V en Margaretha van Oostenrijk, van top tot teen bezet met zijden bloemen, houten sculptuurtjes, inscripties in koraal of glas, stoffelijke resten en hier en daar een eeuwenoud verborgen briefje.

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Who we are

Illuminare (KU Leuven) is a research and documentation centre, located in the Leuven University Library. The focus on medieval and early modern art from the Low Countries approached from a European perspective is steered by both research and doctoral projects that are supported by an international network of universities, institutions, and museums. Illuminare equally endorses several international peer-reviewed series. The centre moreover conserves and catalogues illuminated manuscripts and carries out art technical research. It examines, through an interdisciplinary approach, the iconology of medieval art. Illuminare holds several research archives of renowned art historians, and organises national and international exhibitions.

Illuminare is supported by KU Leuven,  the Research Foundation – Flanders (FWO), the Belgian Federal Science Policy (Belspo), the Hercules Foundation, the Van der Weyden Chair – Paul & Dora Janssen, the Veronique Vandekerchove Chair of the City of Leuven, the Chair of Medieval Sculpture in the Low Countries, the Illuminare Fund, and the King Baudouin Foundation.