Flemish Art and Architecture, 1585-1700


Book Description

02 This beautifully illustrated book provides a complete overview of the art of the Southern Netherlands from 1585 to 1700. The author examines the development of Flemish and specifically Antwerp painting, the work of Rubens and other leading masters, and the Antwerp tradition of specialization among painters as well as the sculpture and architecture of this period. “A major moment of artistic culture has been magisterially sketched by one of its leading authorities.”—Larry Silver, The Art Book“Consistently rewarding . . . a book that is going to transform how Flemish art is understood.”—Jeremy Wood, Apollo Magazine“As well as examining the output and influence of leading figures such as Rubens and Van Dyke, Vlieghe provides the historical, social and cultural context for the development of history painting and other specializations. . . . This book will attract both the informed and general reader.”—Alison Smith, Art Newspaper“Essential for current study of Belgian art.”—ChoiceHans Vlieghe is professor of art history at the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (Louvain) and research director of the Belgian Nationaal Fonds voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek at the Rubenianum, Antwerp. This beautifully illustrated book provides a complete overview of the art of the Southern Netherlands from 1585 to 1700. The author examines the development of Flemish and specifically Antwerp painting, the work of Rubens and other leading masters, and the Antwerp tradition of specialization among painters as well as the sculpture and architecture of this period. “A major moment of artistic culture has been magisterially sketched by one of its leading authorities.”—Larry Silver, The Art Book“Consistently rewarding . . . a book that is going to transform how Flemish art is understood.”—Jeremy Wood, Apollo Magazine“As well as examining the output and influence of leading figures such as Rubens and Van Dyke, Vlieghe provides the historical, social and cultural context for the development of history painting and other specializations. . . . This book will attract both the informed and general reader.”—Alison Smith, Art Newspaper“Essential for current study of Belgian art.”—ChoiceHans Vlieghe is professor of art history at the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (Louvain) and research director of the Belgian Nationaal Fonds voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek at the Rubenianum, Antwerp.







The Paintings of Karel Du Jardin, 1626-1678


Book Description

The Paintings of Karel du Jardin (1626 Amsterdam-Venice 1678) is the first monograph devoted to this talented and versatile artist. It comprises six chapters outlining Du Jardin's life, his reception, his patrons, portraits, history paintings and landscapes, followed by a conclusion, a list of documents, and a catalogue raisonné of his approximately 158 autographs paintings, as well as doubtful and rejected works. Celebrated in his own lifetime by poets and playwrights, and known primarily for his luminous Italianate landscape paintings, he also produced a modest number of elegant and aristocratising portraits of Amsterdam's patrician and merchant elites, along with stunning and recondite history paintings. Never fully studied before, these works have been carefully researched, with much new or additional provenance, and are discussed in terms of their content and meaning; at times unusual and innovative. They are set within the context of artistic developments both in the Netherlands and abroad, as well as Du Jardin's own life, now fully reconstructed with a wealth of new archival material, and that of his circle of well-to-do, educated patrons and buyers, who turned out to share certain notions of civility and honnêteté.







Women and Gender in the Early Modern Low Countries 1500-1750


Book Description

"Women and Gender in the Early Modern Low Countries, 1500-1750 brings together research on women and gender across the Low Countries, a culturally contiguous region that was split by the Eighty Years War into the Protestant Dutch Republic in the north and the Spanish-controlled, Catholic Hapsburg Netherlands in the south. The authors of this interdisciplinary volume highlight women's experiences of social class, as family members, before the law, and as authors, artists, and patrons, as well as the workings of gender in art and literature. In studies ranging from microhistories to surveys, the book reveals the Low Countries as a remarkable historical laboratory for its topic and points to the opportunities the region holds for future scholarly investigations"--







David Gorlaeus (1591-1612)


Book Description

When David Gorlaeus (1591-1612) passed away at 21 years of age, he left behind two highly innovative manuscripts. Once they were published, his work had a remarkable impact on the evolution of seventeenth-century thought. However, as his identity was unknown, divergent interpretations of their meaning quickly sprang up. Seventeenth-century readers understood him as an anti-Aristotelian thinker and as a precursor of Descartes. Twentieth-century historians depicted him as an atomist, natural scientist and even as a chemist. And yet, when Gorlaeus died, he was a beginning student in theology. His thought must in fact be placed at the intersection between philosophy, the nascent natural sciences, and theology. The aim of this book is to shed light on Gorlaeus’ family circumstances, his education at Franeker and Leiden, and on the virulent Arminian crisis which provided the context within which his work was written. It also attempts to define Gorlaeus’ place in the history of Dutch philosophy and to assess the influence that it exercised in the evolution of philosophy and science, and notably in early Cartesian circles. Christoph Lüthy is professor of the history of philosophy and science at Radboud University Nijmegen, the Netherlands.




Beghinae in Cantu Instructae


Book Description

Beguinages ('begijnhoven') are unique to the Low Countries. Originally, beguine communities were disseminated over a large area comprising the northern and southern Low Countries, northern France, and parts of present-day Germany and Switzerland. The typical 'court' beguinages, however, are represented most strongly in the southern Low Countries, where a considerable number of them still exist. On account of their historical, architectural, and socio-religious value, a selection of thirteen beguinages was recognized as World Heritage by Unesco in 1998. Only recently, research has paid closer attention to the material culture of beguinage life, including literacy and book culture among beguines. Beguinae in cantu instructae focuses on another 'new' aspect of this musical culture, and for the first time describes and studies the sources of the beguines' musical life. The volume fills a void in current musicology and beguine scholarship, sketching the previously unassessed quality, quantity, stylistic diversity, and historical and geographical dissemination of the repertory. On the one hand, a number of source studies yield a deeper insight into several aspects of the preserved patrimony, which proves to be both rich and diverse. The 'story behind the music' provides the context necessary for a full understanding of the sources. On the other hand, this book aims at stimulating further exploration of the music by providing a repertory of all music manuscripts and prints that have been found thus far. Beguinae in cantu instructae will inform the general reader on new aspects of beguine life; furthermore, it will provide amateur and professional musicians with new material (from the Middle Ages to the late 18th century) and historians and musicologists with a basis for further study and research.




Dictionary of Subjects and Symbols in Art


Book Description

The understanding and enjoyment of a work of art depends as much on the story it depicts as on the artist's execution of it. But what were once biblical or classical commonplaces are not so readily recognizable today. This book relates in a succinct and readable way the themes, sacred and secular, on which the repertoire of Western art is based. Combined here in a single volume are religious, classical, and historical themes, figures of moral allegory, and characters from romantic poetry that appeared throughout paintings and sculpture in Western art before and after the Renaissance. More than just a dictionary, this text places these subjects in their narrative, historical, or mythological context and uses extensive cross-referencing to enhance and clarify the meanings of these themes for the reader. The definitive work by which others are compared, this volume has become an indispensable handbook for students and general appreciators alike. This wholly redesigned second edition includes a new insert of images chosen by the author, as well as a new preface and index to highlight the ideas, beliefs, and social and religious customs that form the background of much of this subject matter.




Luxury in the Low Countries


Book Description

Painting a panoramic view of conspicuous consumption in the Netherlands and Flanders from 1500 to the present, this collection of essays explores the economic forces that produce a boom in luxury goods. Working from disciplines such as archaeology, art history, historical ethnology, linguistics, and media studies, these scholarly contributors explore both the wealth and the social display that fuels the search for rare commodities.