Conference: ‘Zooming In and Out: Reconsidering Hans Memling’, Musea Brugge, Bruges, 20-21 November 2025

The conference will take place in the auditorium of BRUSK, Musea Brugge, Bruges. Registration is now open, via the Musea Brugge website.

To celebrate its opening in 2025, BRON Research Centre (Musea Brugge), in collaboration with the Royal Institute for Cultural Heritage (KIK-IRPA, Brussels), is organising a two-day conference on new and ongoing research on the oeuvre of Early Netherlandish painter Hans Memling.

In 2023 the first phase of the research project Closer to Memling commenced. Closer to Memling is a project initiated by Musea Brugge in collaboration with other institutions to thoroughly examine the 9 works by Hans Memling in its collection. The aim of this project and conference is to contextualise previous studies and stimulate new research on the painter in an interdisciplinary exchange between leading and new scholars in the field.

Conference programme

Thursday 20 November 2025

09.00 – 09.30 Registration and coffee

09.30 – 09.50 Welcome

09.30 – 09.50 Word of welcome – Anne van Oosterwijk (Musea Brugge)

09.50 – 11.20 Session 1 – moderator: Jan Dumolyn (Ghent University)

• Anna Koopstra (Musea Brugge), To Memling or not to Memling—past, present and future of Memling studies
• Joannes van den Maagdenberg (Fondation Périer-d’Ieteren/Université Libre de Bruxelles/Ghent University), The Bruges commissioners of Hans Memling
• Hendrik Callewier (KULeuven/State Archives Bruges), Context of the portrait of Gilles Joye
• Discussion

11.20 – 11.50 Coffee break

11.50 – 13.20 Session 2 – moderator: Bernhard Ridderbos (Independent scholar)

• Till-Holger Borchert (Suermondt-Ludwig-Museum, Aachen), Unpredictable ambitions: Memling’s last judgment in perspective
• Fabio Marcelli (University of Perugia), The draft commission of the triptych for the “Badia Fiesolana” in the light of the historical and humanistic events of Florence
• Oskar Rojewski (Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia, Madrid), Fragment of the Chain Reaction: What Michel Sittow Learned in Memling’s Workshop
• Discussion

13.20 – 15.00 Lunch break

15.00 – 16.30 Session 3 – moderator: Bart Fransen (KIK-IRPA, Brussels)

• Sandra Hindriks (Universität Wien), Window and Mirror in Hans Memling’s Diptych of Maarten van Nieuwenhove
• Miyuki Yamagata (Kyoto University), Hans Memling’s Artistic Inspirations from Germany: Diversity of Media and Vernacular Devotional Practices
• Jeffrey Taylor (Kaunas University of Applied Sciences), The Memling Carpet: Controversy at the Foundation of Carpet History
• Discussion

16.30 – 18.30 Visit to Museum St. John’s Hospital

18.30 – 21.00 Walking dinner/reception at BRUSK

Friday 21 November 2025

09.30 – 10.00 Registration and coffee

10.00 – 11.30 Session 4 – moderator: Ingrid Falque (UCLouvain)

• Martin Hanβen (Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena), Leaving no trace behind? Hans Memling in Cologne
• Erik Eising (Gemäldegalerie – Staatliche Museen zu Berlin), Artistic Crossroads: Unraveling the Parallels Between Hans Memling and Hugo van der Goes
• Cameron Hurst (University of Melbourne), New Analysis of the Melbourne Man of Sorrows

11.15 – 11.30 Discussion

11.30 – 13.30 Lunch break + free visit to Groeningemuseum

13.30 – 15.30 Session 5 – moderator: Christina Currie (KIK-IRPA, Brussels)

• Marie Postec (KIK-IRPA, Brussels), From Van Eyck to Memling – the expressive power of oil paint
• Melis Avkiran (KIK-IRPA, Brussels, Hans Memling’s Ursula Shrine: New Insights from the IOHANNES Project 
• Carol Pottasch and Jan Bustin (Mauritshuis, The Hague and Independent, Memling’s Manoeuvres: Ins and Outs of the Blue
• Sofia Hennen and Joyce Klein Koerkamp (Musea Brugge), New technical analysis of the Portrait of a Young Woman
• Discussion

15.30 – 15.50 General discussion and closing remarks by Anna Koopstra (Musea Brugge) and Melis Avkiran (KIK-IRPA, Brussels)