{"id":2615,"date":"2025-10-10T12:12:00","date_gmt":"2025-10-10T10:12:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/stedelijkmuseumalkmaar.nl\/?p=2615"},"modified":"2026-04-10T10:56:04","modified_gmt":"2026-04-10T08:56:04","slug":"stedelijk-museum-alkmaar-celebrates-150-years-with-gift-to-the-city","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stedelijkmuseumalkmaar.nl\/en\/stedelijk-museum-alkmaar-viert-150-jaar-met-geschenk-aan-de-stad\/","title":{"rendered":"Stedelijk Museum Alkmaar celebrates 150 years with gift to the city\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"
Rare panels by Master of Alkmaar added to collection<\/em>\u00a0<\/h5>\n\n\n\n

Alkmaar, October 10, 2025<\/strong> - Stedelijk Museum Alkmaar is celebrating its 150th anniversary this year, making it one of the oldest urban museums in the Netherlands. The anniversary will have an extra festive character thanks to a special new acquisition: two early sixteenth-century panels by the Master of Alkmaar with four female saints. This acquisition fulfills a long-cherished wish of the museum: to add a work by this artist to the collection. The panels will be on display from October 15 in the exhibition Allemaal Alkmaar. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Master 
Master of Alkmaar, The Saints Agatha and Lucia and The Saints Cecilia and Margaret,  
circa 1501, Oil on panel. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Meet the Master of Alkmaar<\/strong> <\/h5>\n\n\n\n

Works by the mysterious Master of Alkmaar are extremely rare and seldom appear on the market. His oeuvre comprises about twelve paintings, of which only six are held in Dutch public collections. He derives his name from The Seven Works of Mercy in the collection of the Rijksmuseum, which for a long time hung in the Great or Saint Lawrence Church and is considered one of the most iconic works from Alkmaar's history. With the purchase of the two panels with four female saints, it feels as if the Master of Alkmaar is returning to the city. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The two panels, recently acquired at auction, are among the most appealing and highest quality works by the Master of Alkmaar. The panels depict female saints in a cloister garden with exotic birds and a hilly landscape. Each saint is recognizable by an attribute: Cecilia continued to sing for God and is portrayed with an organ, Margaret defied a dragon, Lucia holds fire in her hand and gave away her riches, and Agatha was severely martyred\u2014her severed breast is shown in pincers in the painting. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Four women, a powerful story<\/strong> <\/h5>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe subject matter of the panels is appealing to both medieval believers and contemporary museum visitors: four women who courageously held on to their faith. Their stories of fortitude and faithfulness to God inspired then, and are still relevant today.\u201d says curator Tristan Schiff. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Absolute audience favorites<\/strong> <\/h5>\n\n\n\n

These works are expected to become absolute crowd pleasers. The artist paid great attention to details: the dragon, the organ and the painted brocade of the dresses are beautifully elaborated. The vibrant colors and decorative elements such as the birds and the monastery garden appeal strongly to the imagination. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A tremendous narrative power emanates from the panels. This gives the museum an opportunity to address the relationship between people and faith in the late Middle Ages, and specifically highlight the role of women in it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

With this, the museum is giving a special gift to residents and visitors to the city on its birthday. From October 15, you can admire the Master of Alkmaar for yourself. Plan your visit via stedelijkmuseumalkmaar.com<\/a> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Courtesy of<\/em><\/strong> 
This acquisition was made possible with the support of the Vereniging Rembrandt (partly thanks to its Medieval and Renaissance Theme Fund and its VriendenLoterij Acquisition Fund), the Mondriaan Fund (the public fund for visual arts and cultural heritage in the Netherlands and the Caribbean part of the Kingdom), and the Friends of Stedelijk Museum Alkmaar.<\/em> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Note to editors, not for publication<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

For more information, images or questions, contact  
Veerle van de Laar via pers@museumalkmaar.nl<\/a> of 072-5489789.   
Stedelijk Museum Alkmaar, Canadaplein 1, 1811 KE Alkmaar <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Zeldzame panelen van Meester van Alkmaar toegevoegd aan de collectie\u00a0 Alkmaar, 10 oktober 2025 \u2013 Stedelijk Museum Alkmaar viert dit jaar zijn 150-jarig bestaan en behoort daarmee tot de oudste stedelijke musea van Nederland. Het jubileum krijgt een extra feestelijk karakter dankzij een bijzondere nieuwe aanwinst: twee vroeg-zestiende-eeuwse panelen van de Meester van Alkmaar met vier vrouwelijke heiligen. Met deze aankoop gaat een... Read more \"<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1950,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2615","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pers"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stedelijkmuseumalkmaar.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2615","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stedelijkmuseumalkmaar.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stedelijkmuseumalkmaar.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stedelijkmuseumalkmaar.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stedelijkmuseumalkmaar.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2615"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/stedelijkmuseumalkmaar.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2615\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2673,"href":"https:\/\/stedelijkmuseumalkmaar.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2615\/revisions\/2673"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stedelijkmuseumalkmaar.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1950"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stedelijkmuseumalkmaar.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2615"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stedelijkmuseumalkmaar.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2615"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stedelijkmuseumalkmaar.nl\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2615"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}