Traveling "Saints, Sinners, Lovers and Fools" exhibit dazzles Denver Art Museum visitors

A new traveling exhibit at the Denver Art Museum is dazzling audiences. It's called "Saints, Sinners, Lovers, and Fools: 300 Years of Flemish Masterworks" and it features some artwork that's never been seen inside the United States.

Angelica Daneo, Chief Curator at DAM, said bringing the exhibit to Colorado was a "very exciting project."

"It's an opportunity to focus on one of the most important regions -- Flanders -- in the 15th, 16th and 17th century of Europe. This is the northern part of Belgium. This is an area where some of the most important artists were born, where some of the new imagery, style and technique, like oil painting, were developed," Daneo said.

Daneo said the museum is excited to show off this "fundamental moment in art history" to visitors. It was brought here thanks to a collaboration between the museum and The Phoebus Foundation in Belgium.

The exhibit traveled all over Europe before coming to Colorado.

"This is the first time it's been seen outside of Europe," said Daneo.

In addition to some medieval, renaissance and baroque works where visitors can examine the "exquisite accuracy in which some of this art is painted," Daneo says there's also the "Fools" section of the exhibit where the artists chose different "ways to poke fun at humans' shortcomings."

 "They remind us not to take ourselves too seriously," she said.

Artists featured in the exhibit include Peter Paul Rubens and Anthony Van Dyck, who Daneo calls "some of the most important names in European art history." Sculptures are also on display, and there's a section which includes some items that you might have found in the room of an art collector would have had in the 16th century in northern Europe. It's a "room of wonders," and the Denver Museum of Nature and Science helped DAM assemble it.

Two different audio tours of the exhibit are offered to visitors, and one is specifically geared towards children.

The exhibit runs through Jan. 22. Use the promo code below for a discount on tickets.