The Museum Catharijneconvent is a national museum of religious art in Utrecht

Utrecht (city)

Utrecht city and municipality is the capital and most populous city of the Dutch province of Utrecht. It is located in the eastern corner of the Randstad conurbation, and is the fourth largest city of the Netherlands with a population of 312,634 on 1 Jan 2011.Utrecht's ancient city centre features...

. It is located in the former Catharijne

Catherine of Alexandria

Saint Catherine of Alexandria, also known as Saint Catherine of the Wheel and The Great Martyr Saint Catherine is, according to tradition, a Christian saint and virgin, who was martyred in the early 4th century at the hands of the pagan emperor Maxentius...

convent

Convent

A convent is either a community of priests, religious brothers, religious sisters, or nuns, or the building used by the community, particularly in the Roman Catholic Church and in the Anglican Communion...

, having been sited there since 1979. Its collections include those of the museum of religious art of the Catholic Archbishopric of Utrecht, located in the convent until 1979. In 2006 the Convent closed for restoration. It is part of the Utrecht Museum Night

Utrecht Museum Night

The Utrecht Museum Night is an annual event in the Dutch city of Utrecht, first organised in 2001. It involves the following museums:*Nederlands Spoorwegmuseum*Sterrenwacht Sonnenborgh*Universiteitsmuseum...

.

Collection

The Museum Catharijneconvent has an extensive collection of historical and art-historical objects from the early Middle Ages

Middle Ages

The Middle Ages is a periodization of European history from the 5th century to the 15th century. The Middle Ages follows the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 and precedes the Early Modern Era. It is the middle period of a three-period division of Western history: Classic, Medieval and Modern...

 to the present. The vast collection presents a picture of Protestant and Catholic art and cultural history of the Netherlands and the impact of that history on Dutch society. The collection includes, among other richly illustrated manuscripts, bookbindings decorated with precious stones, richly-worked images, paintings, altarpieces, clothing and ecclesiastical objects in gold and silver. One of the highlights of the collection is ivory-work from the early medieval Lebuinuskelk.

Dutch painting of the 16th and 17th centuries is represented by works by Jan van Scorel

Jan van Scorel

Jan van Scorel was an influential Dutch painter credited with the introduction of High Italian Renaissance art to the Netherlands.-Biography:He was born in Schoorl, north of Alkmaar and close to Egmond Abbey...

, Rembrandt, Frans Hals

Frans Hals

Frans Hals was a Dutch Golden Age painter. He is notable for his loose painterly brushwork, and helped introduce this lively style of painting into Dutch art. Hals was also instrumental in the evolution of 17th century group portraiture.-Biography:Hals was born in 1580 or 1581, in Antwerp...

 and Pieter Saenredam, and more recent Dutch art by works by Jan Toorop

Jan Toorop

Jean Theodoor Toorop , better known as Jan Toorop, was an Indo painter, whose works straddle the space between the Symbolist painters and Art Nouveau.-Biography:...

, Shinkichi Tajiri

Shinkichi Tajiri

Shinkichi Tajiri was a Dutch-American sculptor of Japanese ancestry . He was also active in painting, photography and cinematography....

, Frans Franciscus and Marc Mulders.