Why go
Rubens and fellow painters such as Van Dyck and Jordaens anchor Antwerp’s artistic reputation. The Royal Academy of Fine Arts later became an important home for fashion designers, including the Antwerp Six. Even the city’s dialect and hand-shaped biscuits point to a local identity that reaches beyond its famous port.
What to look for
- Rubens, Van Dyck and Jordaens are central names in Antwerp’s painting tradition.
- The Royal Academy of Fine Arts links the city to the Antwerp Six fashion designers.
- Antwerpse Handjes biscuits take their hand shape from a city symbol.
The full story
Antwerp’s seventeenth-century school of painting included Peter Paul Rubens, Anthony van Dyck and Jacob Jordaens. Their work made the city an artistic centre beyond its trading role. A later creative chapter grew around the Royal Academy of Fine Arts. Graduates known as the Antwerp Six drew international attention to the city’s fashion scene in the 1980s, and the school remained associated with Belgian design. Culture also lives outside galleries and ateliers. Antwerps, the local Dutch dialect, has pronunciations distinctive enough to feature in dialect theatre. Antwerpse Handjes, biscuits shaped like hands, carry a city emblem into an everyday form. Together these strands give a useful way to read Antwerp: painting, design, speech and food each express a different period and scale of local life. Pick the strand that interests you and let it guide a few stops.
Useful to know
- Pair Rubens-related art with the city’s fashion heritage to see different creative periods.
- Look for Antwerpse Handjes by name if you want a local sweet with a direct link to city folklore.