Flemish Artist Research Articles

Het vroege werk van Joost Cornelisz. Droochsloot. Nieuwe genres in de Domstad: 1615-1630

With approximately 350 paintings, eleven drawings and three etches, the familiar oeuvre of Utrecht-born painter Joost Cornelisz. Droochsloot (1585-1666) is nothing short of extensive. Numbering 180, his farming scenes comprise the majority of his work, but are generally unremarkable, thereby traditionally establishing Droochsloot as a mediocre, largely unexceptional painter. This article argues that his earlier works (1615-1630), which have not received the attention they deserve in the past, are a testament to the artist's ingenuity and profound understanding of the art market. Archive sources and apprenticeship contracts are absent, but based on stylistic comparison this research suggests that he may have been under the tutelage of David Vinckboons (1576-1629) and at a later date possibly at work in the studio of Frans Francken II (1581-1642). Particularly his early work displays striking similarities with that of both masters. Undisputedly, Droochsloot was in close contact with the artists of the Brueghel school. This Flemish style was not yet known in Utrecht, and was introduced there by Droochsloot. Moreover, in his work he depicted themes that did not have a pictorial tradition in his city of residence. However, Droochsloot does not present himself as an unresisting disciple of the Bruegel school. He adapted the Flemish style to the demands of his birthplace, and made important changes with respect to the works of the Catholic Flemish artists. The principal difference is that Droochsloots primarily aimed to depict everyday life. He made a conscious choice to detach his work from a specific faith, even in those works that represent Christian themes. He furthermore left out any scenes that might be cause for offense. In that respect, he is essentially different from his Flemish colleagues, who took a much more moralistic approach. These unique adjustments were undoubtedly a tactical move that made his work pleasing to a larger audience of buyers. In turn, despite the immense competition in Utrecht and the rest of the Northern Netherlands, Droochsloot was able to support himself as a painter for a considerable period of time.

Light Symbolism in Gentile da Fabriano’s Vatican Annunciation

Gentile da Fabriano’s Annunciation in the Vatican Pinacoteca is one of the clearest and most interesting visualizations of a famous metaphor from Medieval hymn literature that compares Mary’s hymen to the glass of a window. The painting uniquely combines three elements: rays of light, a Gothic tracery window, and the shape of the window impressed on the Virgin’s body. Gentile’s painting is the culmination of a development in Tuscan art that can be traced back at least until about 1370. This makes it part of an Italian tradition of visualizing the so-called ut vitrum metaphor that must antedate analogous examples from Flemish art.

Music Meant to Impress: Flemish Artists, European Politics, and Jena, Thüringer Universitäts- und Landesbibliothek, Ms. 4

The manuscripts created in the workshop of Petrus Alamire engaged the efforts of some of the best Flemish artists and workshops of the period. Recently, these illuminations have rightly begun to garner significant attention. This article studies the unusual case of Jena, Thüringer Universitäts- und Landesbibliothek, Ms. 4. This manuscript is the largest and most ambitious of the Alamire manuscripts, indicating that it served a special function or was created to commemorate a particular occasion. Its series of portraits focussing on the links between the families of the Holy Roman Emperor and the English monarch have puzzled scholars trying to date the manuscript. At least three artists contributed to its completion: one from the workshop of Simon Bening; another from the workshop of the Master of James IV of Scotland; and the Master of the David Scenes in the Grimani Breviary. A careful consideration of the manuscript’s codicology, iconography, secondary decoration, and division of hands help date the manuscript and reveal a distinct change in the manuscript’s plan during its production. This in turn sheds light on its original intended owner and the circumstances under which it was initially created.

A király műhelye: Luxemburgi Zsigmond budavári szobrai és művészettörténeti helyzetük

The study was originally written for the volume introducing the Medieval Buda (Medieval Buda in Context. Ed. Szende, Katalin-Nagy, Balazs. Leiden [Brill] 2014, to be published). It was written with...

Detection of Forgeries of Dutch and Flemish Paintings of the XVII–XVIII Centuries by means of Spectroscopic Techniques

Results of spectroscopic examinations of three paintings that by the formal and stylistic features can be attributed to the Dutch and Flemish schools of the XVII–XVIIIth centuries were presented. It was supposed that one of the paintings was created by David Teniers the Younger. The signature ″L. de Moni″ was found on the paint layer of another painting. Inorganic art pigments including those of the XIXth century were identified using laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy. Fourier-transform IR spectroscopy was used to determine the paint binders, which allowed the lower limits of the creation time of these artworks to be defined. Results of a microscopic examination of the stratigraphic structure revealed that the creation technology of these artworks differed from that of Dutch and Flemish artists of the XVII–XVIIIth centuries. Thus, all three investigated paintings were XXth century stylistic forgeries of Dutch and Flemish paintings of the XVI–XVIIIth centuries.

La trisomie 21 dans les arts visuels

In 1866, J. Langdon Down published a paper on "an ethnic classification of idiots" and noted their facial resemblance with individuals of the Mongolian people. In 1959, J. Lejeune, M. Gautier, and R. Turpin demonstrated that the children with Down syndrome had an extra copy of chromosome 21. There is now a debate within the medical literature on the age of trisomy 21 as a disease affecting mankind. Since it was not described before 1866, some authors questioned whether this disease is an old or new condition in humans. Three methods of investigation are useful for demonstrating that trisomy 21 has been present in humans for a long time: the figuration of this condition in historical paintings, figurines, and pottery; its presence in old skeletal remains; and the origin of human chromosome 21 during primate phylogeny. Figurines strongly suggestive of trisomy 21 have been found in the Greco-Roman world, in many Central and South American pre-Columbian cultures, and in Khmer temples. In Europe, during the Renaissance, Italian and Flemish artists represented trisomy 21 in paintings of religious inspiration. Studies on the origin and pathology of chromosome 21 have shown that the ancestral human chromosome 21 arose 30-50 million years ago and that trisomy 21 has existed since time immemorial.

Inversion comique ou critique satirique ? La vue du Capitole de Hieronymus Cock (1562)

Hieronymus Cock’s view of the Capitoline Hill, published in his 1562 series on Roman ruins, has long been considered a useful document by historians of art and architecture for the key historical and topographical information it contains on one of Rome’s most celebrated sites during the Renaissance. Beyond its documentary nature, which, as will appear, was essentially rhetorical, the view also offers much information as to how a mid-sixteenth-century Flemish artist might perceive Rome’s illustrious topography and celebrated ancient statuary. In other words, Cock’s engraving enables us to put into practice what may be called an “archaeology of the gaze.” Through previously unnoticed details, Cock invents a comical—verging on the satirical—vision of the antique sculptures proudly displayed on the famous piazza. Such an ironical reversal of Italian classical dignity is typical of the attitude of some contemporary Flemish artists, such as Pieter Bruegel the Elder, who was then close to Cock, and exposes the ambivalent position of some Northern European artists towards the classical tradition and Italian art theory. Finally, the analysis of other engravings of ruins by Hieronymus Cock where two emblematic characters—the draftsman and the kakker (the one who defecates)—appear side by side, sheds light on the origin and possible significance of these comical and subversive details.

Early Nineteenth Century Bohemianism in Antwerp: The Unpublished Archives of the St Luybrecht Guild

The notion of Bohemianism, usually associated with the late nineteenth or early twentieth century, is extended to apply to early nineteenth century Flemish authors and artists, e. g. the St Luybrecht Guild in Antwerp and its leader Theodoor Van Ryswyck. Focussing on the Archives of the St Luybrecht Guild, an album with pornographic and scatological texts, unknown or deliberately concealed in puritan nineteenth and twentieth century Flanders, the Luybrecht writings and activities are brought to light, and linked to the European concept of Bohemianism. The importance of public houses and taverns in early nineteenth century cultural life in Antwerp is also investigated.

Empirical Mode Decomposition Analysis for Visual Stylometry

In this paper, we show how the tools of empirical mode decomposition (EMD) analysis can be applied to the problem of “visual stylometry,” generally defined as the development of quantitative tools for the measurement and comparisons of individual style in the visual arts. In particular, we introduce a new form of EMD analysis for images and show that it is possible to use its output as the basis for the construction of effective support vector machine (SVM)-based stylometric classifiers. We present the methodology and then test it on collections of two sets of digital captures of drawings: a set of authentic and well-known imitations of works attributed to the great Flemish artist Pieter Bruegel the Elder (1525-1569) and a set of works attributed to Dutch master Rembrandt van Rijn (1606-1669) and his pupils. Our positive results indicate that EMD-based methods may hold promise generally as a technique for visual stylometry.

Stylometry of paintings using hidden Markov modelling of contourlet transforms

Visual stylometry is the task of quantifying artistic style in the visual arts. In this paper we present a method for visual stylometry of paintings from digital reproductions.Our method is framed around modelling contourlet transforms of the digital reproductions with hidden Markov models. Using the contourlet transform in the field of classification is a new approach motivated by the contourlets' efficiency in representing piecewise smooth contours such as brushstrokes.To test our method we have used paintings related to the Danish painter Asger Jorn and drawings related to the Flemish artist Pieter Bruegel the Elder. The paintings related to Asger Jorn are recorded in multiple digital images and by two different cameras. With multiple sources we are able to get insight into the robustness of our method against different means of acquisition.Through a cross-validation of the Jorn images by one of the cameras we are able to correctly classify 39 out of 44 images; based on this classifier we can correctly classify 28 out of 36 images in the other data set.A cross-validation of the Bruegel images correctly classifies 11 out of 13 images.

Kris Verdonck's Garden Installation EXOTE: Ecozoic wanderlust at the edge of Eden

Thomas Barry, author of The Dream of the Earths, suggests that our civilization is moving into an ecozoic, rather than an ecological era. While ecology merely refers to an understanding of our life systems and their integral relations, the term ecozoic (zoic bering derived from the Greek zoe meaning life) also conveys the feeling of an immediate, biological reality. This paper puts EXOTE (2011), the latest creation of Flemish theatre maker and visual artist Kris Verdonck, within the context of ecozoic art. EXOTE is an indoor garden that has been planted on the first floor of the Z33 House for Contemporary Art in Hasselt. It houses species that have been defined by the European Union as ‘invasive alien species’; they thrive outside their natural distribution area, threaten biological diversity and hence have a devastating impact on ecology. Verdonck selected a number of these species and brought them together in one big luminous garden. The garden of Eden that turns ‘sick’ in the end – putting together invasive species in a confined space is an experiment of biological wars and battles of survival – is a metaphor for sick contemporary humanity. Intense worldwide trade has introduced several species into new habitats, allowing them to invade the local fauna. In this sense, this interactive installation and the performative walking of its visitors allude to the malaise of overproduction and consumption. Verdonck's garden is in that sense a hortus contemplationis: a garden that triggers a reflexive response to utilitarianism and resource exploitation, communicating an ecological consciousness, by means of conveying an immediate, biological reality.

The eye of the connoisseur: authenticating paintings by Rembrandt and his contemporaries

Attributing old master paintings is one of the most difficult tasks of the art historian. While authorship has important implications for the field of art history and for valuation, little has been written on the theory and techniques of the connoisseur s work. This volume analyzes the role of the expert s intuition along with efforts to develop scientific techniques.The author focuses on the challenges of attributing seventeenth-century Dutch and Flemish art, then turns to investigating connoisseurship, arguing that to evaluate authenticity, it is necessary to understand what it meant when the paintings were created. Further discussions probe the understanding of an original versus a copy at a time when painters routinely produced multiple versions of a work; the meaning of by the master s hand when paintings were often produced with the help of assistants; and the significance of style when artists intentionally varied theirs depending on the subject matter or the audience.

Global warming and surging glaciers

The Earth’s climate undergoes fluctuations and for the past thousand years has experienced periods of warming and cooling. In the seventeenth century, severe and long-standing winters, known as the Little Ice Age, recurred in the south of Europe. One can see frozen channels and snow-covered Holland in the paintings of famous Flemish artists.

Michael Sweerts/François Duquesnoy: A Flemish Paragone in Seventeenth-Century Rome

This article addresses the long-overlooked artistic relationship between painter Michael Sweerts and sculptor François Duquesnoy through an examination of Sweerts' unusual inclusion of Duquesnoy's Apollo and Cupid in the 1652 painting In the Studio. Instead of depicting the Apollo and Cupid in its original bronze form, Sweerts transforms the sculpture into a fragmented plaster cast, emphasizing its affinity with the antique sculptural fragments that surround it, and drawing attention to Duquesnoy's realization of a classical ideal. Sweerts' representation of the Apollo and Cupid should be situated within the theoretical context of the paragone, the debate concerning the relative merits of painting and sculpture, as it not only demonstrates his ability to paint sculpture convincingly, but to transform and ultimately rival the work of Duquesnoy. Yet, as this article argues, Sweerts' depiction of the Apollo and Cupid also demonstrates his admiration for the achievements of his fellow Fleming, and brings to light their shared admiration for the antique and the commonalities between their artistic ideals. This article seeks to redefine Sweerts in more classicizing terms, while urging a broader reconsideration of the nature of artistic exchange among Flemish artists in seventeenth-century Rome.

'Extensive fields of our forefathers': Some Prospect Drawings of Common Fields in Northamptonshire by Peter Tillemans, c. 1719–21

This article presents a number of prospect drawings of various parts of Northamptonshire, made by the Flemish artist, Peter Tillemans, between 1719 and 1721. These views provide the rural historian with what are probably the earliest artistic representations of the unenclosed landscape in England and a unique visual reference to Northamptonshire's open fields and commons just before the parliamentary enclosure movement began. The article will examine these views to demonstrate first of all how the prospect compositional style was suited to the artistic treatment of Northamptonshire's open fields and commons, and to show that this landscape was more varied and not as bleak as later pro-enclosure commentators would have it. It will also be demonstrated how some views appear to suggest that common land continued to play an accepted part in the county's economic and cultural development at this time, while others clearly give an indication of incipient and inevitable change in the landscape as the century progressed.

Вячеслав Иванов и искусство Ренессансa

Viacheslav Ivanov’s interest in Italian Renaissance painting is well known, and it has been analyzed more than once. For the most part, however, such investigations have treated poems of his with elements of ekphrasis or with mentions of artists and their paintings, or articles of his that refer to painting. In our opinion much remains to be said about this matter, and we offer some new materials relating to it. Among them are letters to Ivanov from members of his immediate circle (and, to a lesser, degree his own letters), which note his interest in Renaissance masters ; the reproductions of works of art that he wanted to have before his eyes throughout his life ; the advice that he gave to his friend and housekeeper M. M. Zamjatnina, who heard lectures on the subject and wrote about Renaissane painting ; finally, the books Zamjatnina checked out from the Geneva Library, volumes that could not have escaped Ivanov’s attention. These new materials demonstrate, firstly, that we should pay attention not only to paintings of the Italian Renaissance, but to those of the Northern Renaissance as well (German and Flemish artists above all). Secondly, we should pay much greater attention than previously to Ivanov’s attitude towards Botticelli. And, finally, we should examine the broad historical context in which he perceived Renaissance painting.

Mary Bryan H. Curd. Flemish and Dutch Artists in Early Modern England: Collaboration and Competition, 1460–1680. Visual Culture in Early Modernity. Farnham: Ashgate Publishing Limited, 2010. xx + 236 pp. index. append. illus. tbls. map. bibl. $99.95. ISBN: 978–0–7546–6712–4.

Mary Bryan H. Curd. Flemish and Dutch Artists in Early Modern England: Collaboration and Competition, 1460–1680. Visual Culture in Early Modernity. Farnham: Ashgate Publishing Limited, 2010. xx + 236 pp. index. append. illus. tbls. map. bibl. $99.95. ISBN: 978–0–7546–6712–4.

Short-sighted? Rijckaert Aertsz Portraying the Virgin in a Painting by Frans Floris

The article discusses the life and work of Dutch artist Rijckaert Aertsz, including what works by the artist remain extant. Aertsz's influence on other artists such as Dutch artist Frans Floris de Vriendt is then addressed, particularly in terms of subject matter. Specific works thought to be influenced in this manner are then described and their iconography addressed. The subject matter especially addressed is the depiction of artists in art. The biography of Aertsz by Flemish artist Karel van Mander is referenced throughout.

Związki artystyczne i handlowe pomiędzy Flandrią i Meksykiem od XVI do XVIII w.

The presence and circulation of Southern Netherlands’ values is a fascinating subject with a lot of possibilities for the researchers: Graphic material – printed or manuscript – books, stamps and engravings, as well as paintings, tapestries, sculptures and textiles exported from Antwerp found their way to the New World or even further, via Seville – the gateway to America. Today many examples of Southern Netherland’s books and artistic objects can still be admired in Latin American and from Goa to Manila. The shifting character of exchange in Antwerp affected also its market in luxury goods; this was booming in the 16th century with the international patterns of trade established in the city that facilitated the export of locally-made items to markets abroad. The exportation of luxury goods through Spain was orientated not only to the privileged social levels, but was now distributed on a much larger scale including the Spanish monarchy and the middle classes who displayed a strong taste for Flemish art. All these Flemish works were sold in fairs such as the one of Medina del Campo, Barcelona, Valencia and Seville, and from this great Atlantic Metropolis were sent to America or further.

Portrait of a Genoese Noblewoman by Sir Anthony Van Dyck

<i>Portrait of a Genoese Noblewoman</i> by Sir Anthony Van Dyck