The volume contains entries for paintings in the National gallery that were produced in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries by artists from the Netherlands. The entries are arranged alphabetically by artist; a short biography and bibliography for each artist is followed by individual entries on the paintings, each in order of acquisition. The authors address traditional questions of attributes and iconography; in addition, they examine the social, economic, and religious context in which the individual work of art functioned. The volume is also probable the first museum catalogue to include the results of examination by infrared reflectography and dendrochronological analysis.
This book explores many issues raised by the range of ideas and images of the natural world in Western art since the Renaissance. The whole concept of landscape is examined as a representation of the relationship between the human and natural worlds. Featured artists include Claude, Freidrich, Turner, Cole and Ruisdael, and many different forms of landscape art are addressed, such as land art, painting, photography, garden design, panorama and cartography.
"A study of Netherlandish triptychs from the early fifteenth century through the early seventeenth century, covering works by Jan van Eyck, Rogier van der Weyden, Hugo van der Goes, Hieronymus Bosch, and Peter Paul Rubens. Explores how the triptych format structures and generates meaning"--Provided by publisher.
Larry Silver investigates the origins of new pictorial types and their media as a phenomenon of sixteenth-century Antwerp and interprets several pictorial genres as he charts their evolution and their role in the development and marketing of individual artistic styles.
The study of Patinir's landscapes sets out to demonstrate that they are grounded in the moral and religious thought of his time and closely related to late Medieval devotional art. The first part demonstrates that the figural elements in Patinir's landscapes are based on a type of 'devotional image (Andachtsbild) with secondary scene's that goes back to the paintings of Van der Weyden and Memling. The second part of the book contains an iconographic analysis of the landscape itself, particularly in The Penitence of St Jerome in the Louvre, Paris, and in three paintings in the Prado, Madrid: Landscape with St Jerome, Charon and Man's Soul and Rest on the Flight into Egypt. The book argues that these images are determined by the allegories of the pilgrimage of life and of life's two paths.
Offering a corrective to the common scholarly characterization of seventeenth-century Dutch landscape painting as modern, realistic and secularized, Boudewijn Bakker here explores the long history and purpose of landscape in Netherlandish painting. In Bakker's view, early Netherlandish as well as seventeenth-century Dutch painting can be understood only in the context of the intellectual climate of the day. Concentrating on landscape painting as the careful depiction of the visible world, Bakker's analysis takes in the thought of figures seldom consulted by traditional art historians, such as the fifteenth-century philosopher Dionysius the Carthusian, the sixteenth-century religious reformer John Calvin, the geographer Abraham Ortelius and the seventeenth-century poet Constantijn Huygens. Probing their conception of nature as 'the first Book of God' and art as its representation, Bakker identifies a world view that has its roots in the traditional Christian perceptions of God and creation. Landscape and Religion from Van Eyck to Rembrandt imposes a new layer of interpretation on the richly varied landscapes of the great masters. In so doing it adds a new dimension to the insights offered by modern art-historical research. Further, Bakker's explorations of early modern art and literature provide essential background for any student of European intellectual history.
ReVisioning: Critical Methods of Seeing Christianity in the History of Art examines the application of art historical methods to the history of Christianity and art. As methods of art history have become more interdisciplinary, there has been a notable emergence of discussions of religion in art history as well as related fields such as visual culture and theology. This book represents the first critical examination of scholarly methodologies applied to the study of Christian subjects, themes, and contexts in art. ReVisioning contains original work from a range of scholars, each of whom has addressed the question, in regard to a well-known work of art or body of work, "How have particular methods of art history been applied, and with what effect?" The study moves from the third century to the present, providing extensive treatment and analysis of art historical methods applied to the history of Christianity and art.
Albrecht Dürer (1471-1528), perhaps the most famous of all German artists, embodies the modern ideal of the Renaissance man—he was a remarkable painter, printmaker, draftsman, designer, theoretician, and even a poet. More is known about his thoughts and his life than about any other Northern European master of his time, since he wrote extensively about himself, his family's history, his travels, and his friends. His woodcuts and engravings were avidly collected and copied across Europe, and they quickly established his reputation as a master. Praised in life and elegized in death by such thinkers as Martin Luther and Erasmus, he served Emperor Maximilian and other leading church and secular princes in the Holy Roman Empire. Although there is a vast specialized literature on the Nuremberg master, The Essential Dürer fills the need for a foundational book that covers the major aspects of his career. The essays included in this book, written by leading scholars from the United States and Germany, provide an accessible, up-to-date examination of Dürer's art and person as well as his posthumous fame. The essays address an array of topics, from separate and detailed studies of his paintings, drawings, printmaking, and sculpture, to broader concerns such as his visits to and interactions with Venice and the Netherlands, his personal relationships, and his relationships with other artists. Collectively these stimulating essays explore the brilliance of Dürer's creativity and the impact he had on his world, exposing him as an artist fully engaged with the tumultuous intellectual and religious challenges of his time.
