MADRID.- The Museo Nacional del Prado is presenting for the first time in its galleries The Procession of Giants in Brussels on 31 May 1615, a historically significant painting by the Flemish artist David Noveliers. The work, painted in Brussels in 1616 and acquired by Spain’s Ministry of Culture in 2024, is now on view in Room 80 alongside three other canvases from the same remarkable series.
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The painting belongs to an exceptional group originally commissioned by Archduchess Isabella Clara Eugenia and Archduke Albert of Austria, rulers of the Southern Netherlands on behalf of the Spanish Monarchy. The series recorded the festivities held in Brussels in May 1615, celebrations in which the couple themselves took part.
With this new presentation, the Prado now brings together four of the six surviving paintings from what was once a set of eight large canvases. Two others are held by the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, while the whereabouts of the remaining two are still unknown.
The scenes commemorate public celebrations that had been held since the Middle Ages. These included a crossbow competition, a religious ceremony at the Church of Our Lady of Sablon in Brussels, and festive processions known in Flanders as ommegang. Since 2019, these historic processions have been recognized by UNESCO as Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.
The 1615 festivities had a deeply symbolic character. Isabella Clara Eugenia famously shot down a wooden bird placed on the spire of the Church of Our Lady of Sablon, an act that placed her at the center of the celebrations. She and Albert later commissioned the cycle of paintings from leading artists at their court, preserving the event not only as a public memory but also as a carefully crafted political message.
The paintings presented the rulers as active participants in civic life, close to their subjects and in harmony with the people of Brussels. Their intended audience was also political: the eight canvases were sent to King Philip III of Spain, Isabella Clara Eugenia’s brother, shortly after they were completed. By 1618, they were already installed in the Royal Palace in Madrid.
The newly displayed painting was the fourth in the original series. It stands out for its unusual subject and for the extraordinary level of detail with which it captures the procession. Giants and festive figures move through the streets of Brussels, accompanied by representatives of different sectors of society. Beyond its artistic value, the work offers a vivid document of urban life, popular customs, and public ceremony in the Southern Netherlands at the beginning of the 17th century.
The Prado has also given the group a new visual unity through the addition of specially made frames. Based on historical and documentary research, the frames are made of pine wood, painted black and gilded with 22-carat gold. Their sober black surfaces and gilded profiles evoke Flemish models from the 17th century and are also consistent with descriptions found in Spanish royal inventories.
For the museum, the installation is more than the display of a newly acquired masterpiece. It strengthens the Prado’s representation of courtly and festive culture in the former Spanish Netherlands and deepens the understanding of these paintings as instruments of memory, propaganda, and political representation in early modern Europe.
The painting can now be seen in Room 80 of the Museo Nacional del Prado.
