Organised to mark the state visit to Portugal of Their Majesties the King and Queen of the Netherlands, this exhibition was planned as a diptych. On one side, signalling the collaboration of the Rijksmuseum, is a landscape by one of the most celebrated Dutch artists, Rembrandt van Rijn (1606-1669), an uncommon theme in his prolific work. On the other is a series of works from the prestigious Royal Collections, which interconnect through their relationship to Portugal.

These are joined by notable portraits of Eleonor of Austria (Queen of Portugal through her marriage to King Manuel I, before becoming Queen of France) and her brother, Emperor Charles V, by Joos van Cleve, and those of the princesses Sabina Delphica and Eleonora Mauritia of Portugal, by Gerard van Honthorst, the result of a particular dynastic union between the two kingdoms. Important documentation relating to this union is also on display, restoring the links in the chain broken by historical memory.

From the collections of the Museu Nacional de Arte Antiga, the exhibition also includes an unusual drawing by Rembrandt, the theme of which is also landscape, and a portrait of Queen Eleonor, again by Joos van Cleve, in dialogue with the works which have come to us from the Netherlands.