Measuring ten by fifteen feet, Gerrit van Honthorst’s immense Triumph of the Winter Queen: Allegory of the Just (1636) is the focal point of “Creativity in Exile.” Part allegory and part family portrait, the monumental painting was commissioned by Elizabeth Stuart, formerly Queen of Bohemia (nicknamed the “Winter Queen” for her short reign), long after she was exiled to the Netherlands in 1620.

This gallery also features ceramics donated to the MFA by Frits and Rita Markus, who had to flee persecution in the Netherlands during World War II, abandoning their collection, which they later rebuilt in the United States. Though separated by more than 300 years—and by different media—these ceramics and Honthorst’s painting are linked by the creative impulse and perseverance in the face of loss.