Dutch Art

An illustrated feast for the eye and intellect Dutch Art explores developments in art, art history, art criticism, and cultural history of the Netherlands from the artists' workshops for the Utrecht Dom in 1475 to the latest movements of the 1990s. it is lavishly illustrated with 147 black-and-white photographs and 16 pages in full color. More than 100 internationally recognized scholars, museum professionals, artists, and art critics contributed signed essays to this monumental work, including historians, sociologists, and literary historians.

Dutch art spans the history of Western easel painting from the Middle Ages to the present, and has a psychological development of its own which makes it a fascinating field of study.

Despite the active tradition of scholarship on Dutch painting of the seventeenth century, scholars continue to grapple with the problem of how the strikingly realistic characteristics of art from this period can be reconciled with its possible meanings. With the advent of new methodologies, these debates have gained momentum in the past decade. Looking at Seventeenth-Century Dutch Art, which includes classic essays as well as contributions especially written for this volume, provides a timely survey of the principal interpretative methods and debates, from their origins in the 1960s to current manifestations, while suggesting potential avenues of inquiry for the future. The book offers fascinating insights into the meaning of Dutch art in its original cultural context as well as into the world of scholarship that it has inspired.

"The need for a guidebook enabling all those interested in Dutch art to find out at a glance which paintings and drawings by particular artists or which works of applied art of various periods are to be found in the major American public collections is so obvious that it comes as a surprise to discover that none as ever been written. Until now anyone wishing to know where Dutch art from past centuries or the not-so-distant past could be seen or studied had to rely on memory or hearsay, or had to consult the countless catalogues and publications of the far flung individual museums. Since a fundamental goal of American collecting has been to educate people about all cultures, Dutch art, like the art of so many other nations, is found in virtually every city and town across the country. . . Now we have a guide that tells us where to find the art that we seek and that gives us a lively but professional analysis of the historical significance of these treasures."--Preface

The first major examination of Anthony van Dyck's work as a portraitist and an essential resource on this aspect of his illustrious career This landmark volume is a comprehensive survey of the portrait drawings, paintings, and prints of Anthony van Dyck (1599-1641), one of the most celebrated portraitists of all time. His supremely elegant style and ability to convey a sense of a sitter's inner life made him a favored portraitist among high-ranking figures and royalty across Europe, as well as among his fellow artists and art enthusiasts. Showcasing the full range of Van Dyck's fascinating international career with more than 100 works, this catalogue celebrates the artist's versatility, inventiveness, and influential approach to portraiture. Works include preparatory drawings and oil sketches that shed light on Van Dyck's working process, prints that allowed his work to reach a wider audience, and grand painted portraits. Some of the masterpieces are drawn from the exceptional holdings of The Frick Collection, while other works are presented here for the first time. Also included are drawings by some of Van Dyck's contemporaries--including his teacher Peter Paul Rubens--that illuminate the lineage of his working method. With insightful contributions by a team of international scholars, this unparalleled study of Van Dyck offers a compelling case for the distinctiveness and importance of the artist's work.

This beautifully illustrated, expansive overview of Dutch and Flemish art during the 17th century illuminates the creative achievements of one of the most important eras in western art. The Golden Age in Holland and Flanders roughly spanned the 17th century and was a period of enormous advances in the fields of commerce, science--and art. Still lifes, landscape paintings, and romantic depictions of everyday life became valued by the increasingly wealthy merchant classes in the Dutch provinces, while religious and historic paintings as well as portraits continued to appeal to the Flemish patronage. The Golden Age brought us Rembrandt, Vermeer, Rubens, and Van Dyck, but it was also the period of Frans Hals' revolutionary portraiture, Adriaen Brouwer's depictions of the working class at play, Jan Brueghel's velvety miniatures, and Hendrick Avercamp's lively winter landscapes. Norbert Wolf applies his vast understanding of the interplay between history, culture, and art to explore the forces that led to the Golden Age in Holland and Flanders and how this period influenced later generations of artists. Accompanied by luminous color illustrations, Wolf's accessible text considers the complex political, religious, social, and economic situation that led to newfound prosperity and, thus, to an enormous artistic output that we continue to marvel at and enjoy today.

The stunning beauty and diversity of 17th-century Dutch still-life painting raises many questions about developments in style and technique. What materials did artists use to produce these works? How were they made? Did all the still-life painters of the period use the same methods and materials? Can we relate differences in materials and methods to differences in style? These questions are explored by the conservators and curators of the Amsterdam Rijksmuseum and scientists attached to the Molart project (Molecular aspect of aging in art) in an examination of paintings by Jan Brueghel, Balthasar van der Ast, Jan Davidsz de Heem, Willem Kalf, Rachel Ruysch, and Jan van Huysum.