Shaping the Netherlandish canon
Subtitle: Karel van Mander's Schilder-boeck
By: Walter S. Melion.
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Published: 1991
Place of publication: Chicago
Language: eng
Number of pages: 359
Subjects: Mander, Carel van, 1548-1606; Mander, Carel van, 1548-1606 -- Knowledge -- Art; Painters -- Netherlands -- Biography; Painters -- Belgium -- Biography
Description: A treatise on Dutch art on par with Vasari's critical history of Italian art, Karel van Mander's Schilder-Boeck (or Book on Picturing) has long been recognized for its critical and historical influence--and yet, until now, no comprehensive account of the book's conception, aims, and impact has been available. In this in-depth analysis of the content and context of Van Mander's work, Walter S. Melion reveals the Schilder-Boeck's central importance to an understanding of northern Renaissance and Baroque art. By interpreting the terminology employed in the Schilder-Boeck, Melion establishes the text's relationship to past and contemporary art theory. Van Mander is seen here developing his critical categories and then applying them to Ancient, Italian, and Netherlandish artists in order to mark changes within a culture and to characterize excellence for each region. Thus Melion demonstrates how Van Mander revised both the structure and critical language of Vasari's Lives to refute the Italian's claims for the superiority of the Tuscan style, and to clarify northern artistic traditions and the concerns of Netherlandish artists. A much needed corrective to the view that Dutch art of the period was lacking in theory, Melion's work offers a compelling account of a sixteenth- and seventeenth-century theoretical and critical perspective and shows how this perspective suggests a rereading of northern art.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. [185]-347) and index.