the one-off exhibition of the largest Flemish drawings

Joris Hoefnagel's allegory for Abraham Ortelius, 1593 Photo: Antwerp, Museum Plantin-Moretus

The women gather in a circle and talk intensely and unconsciously, their attention shifting from one animated face to another as the conversation courses through the group. They seem completely unconscious, from a window above the courtyard where they are chatting, artist Jacques Jordaens sketches them in quick red chalk and brown ink.

It is 1659, Antwerp, and according to Jordaens' scribble at the bottom of the newspaper, these so-called 'sledding aunts' are discussing local political 'disruptions' - perhaps the recent strike of the painters' guild. "It's a snapshot ...