Palace opens paintings treasure trove

Buckingham Palace opens its ornate gates to the public today for an exhibition which 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 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.

"It is this fascinating, tragic story of 80 years of war," the Surveyor of the Queen's Pictures and curator, Desmond Shawe-Taylor, said at a press view yesterday. He said the exhibition aimed to help explain the story behind its most prized but confusing possession.

"The most important painting in the collection is Bruegel's 'Massacre of the Innocents' which is completely incomprehensible unless you know about the political history of Flanders at that time," Mr Shawe-Taylor said.

A deceptively picturesque scene of a Flemish village under snow, the painting seems to depict peasants ransacking nearby houses - a scene of mass plunder rather than mass murder.

When Bruegel originally painted the work in 1567 he based it on the biblical story in which King Herod ordered the murder of babies to keep his kingdom secure, intending the painting to be a bitter satire on the brutalities of Spanish rule.

But the painting soon fell into the hands of the Holy Roman Emperor Rudolph II who, fearful of angering his relatives in the Spanish court, ordered artists to paint over the dead children.

A baby lying in the snow at its mother's feet is now an array of hams and cheeses while small animals, bundles of food, and ominous smudges conceal the bloody scenes.

The collection's universal themes range from scenes of war to erotic love, and several works by Rubens.

The exhibition at the Queen's Gallery, Buckingham Palace in London runs till next April 26.