Description

Immediate dispatch from Somerset. Nice book in great condition. Plates bright and vivid. Hardcover. English. See images for condition.

About the book >.>.> IN THE NORTHERN part of the Low Countries in the 15th century in what would soon become Holland there existed a pictorial tradition that contrasted with the contemporary schools of painting in Germany and in the southern part of the Low Countries later to be known as Belgium. The works of two artists define the beginnings of this school. One is the Dutch painter Jean Malouel who had worked in Dijon at the princely court of Philip the Good Duke of Burgundy. The other is Jan van Eyck who was in The Hague between 1422 and 1424 where he produced some of his earliest masterpieces for John of Bavaria Count of Holland. These two painters are in this book subjects of a new study which contains among its illustra- tions reproductions of van Eyck’s rare illumi- nations from those years. A large number of the paintings made in Holland in the 1400’s were destroyed in the religious controversies of the following century. This has created difficulties for research but work in this area of study sorely needed will confirm the existence of a pictorial school in Haarlem whose importance was noted as early as 1604 by the Dutch art historian Karel van Mander. In such research the art of shadowy figure Albert van Ouwater begins to emerge more clearly. And by distinguishing the work of Geertgen Tot Sint Jans from that of his imi- tators Professor Ch?telet establishes him as one of the most original North European artists of the second half of the 15th century. (OS)