The musée départemental de Flandre in Cassel, presents an exhibition devoted to representations of the sea in 16th and 17th centuries’ Flemish art. Although seascapes are regarded as a speciality of Dutch painting, the exhibition serves as a reminder that Flemish artists are their real inventors. It is to Pieter Bruegel the Elder that we owe the first open seascapes. His masterpiece Naval Battle in the Gulf of Naples, conserved at the Pamphilj Gallery in Rome, is on view for the first time outside Italy. The exhibition is made up of eighty paintings, drawings and engravings along with three models of ships, from several European and American museums. It takes up both of the museum’s floors and has been organised into five sections. From the 15th century, Flanders was an economic power whose activities were closely connected with the sea. The correlation, or lack

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