Theodor Rombouts. Virtuoso of Flemish Caravaggism (Ghent, Museum voor Schone Kunsten, 21 January–23 April 2023. Catalogue edited by Frederica Van Dam). Ghent: Snoeck, MSK, 2023, 272 pp., 300 colour illustrations, €50, ISBN: 978‐94‐6161‐813‐9

Certainly, given that numerous group exhibitions of northern Caravaggisti have already taken place, most recently the show in Utrecht including two paintings by Rombouts, underlines that Caravaggio and his followers remain a hot topic. The work by Rombouts in this space is biggest and most densely populated painting in the show, I Allegory of the Second Bench of Aldermen of "Gedele" in Ghent i , which was a commission Rombouts received in 1627 - executed in the two following years - from the city council of Ghent (cat. 39, Fig 4), depicting with bravura the legal system in force. She also points to the broader cultural and literary context: Rombouts was a member and dean of the Antwerp chamber of rhetoric De Violieren and therefore familiar with the iconology of the five senses, for example, a subject which had been widely disseminated in prints after Frans Floris. The first monographic exhibition ever dedicated to the work of the Caravaggesque Flemish painter Theodor Rombouts from Antwerp (1597-1637) at the Museum of Fine Arts in Ghent has to be seen within this context. [Extracted from the article]