Book Reviews

Grand Design. Pieter Coecke van Aelst and Renaissance Tapestry

By Elizabeth Cleland, ed., with Maryan W. Ainsworth, Stijn Alsteens, and Nadine Orenstein

[Cat. exh. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, October 8, 2014 – January 11, 2015.] New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2014 (distributed by Yale University Press). 401pp, 350 color illus. ISBN 978-0-300-20805-4

Review published April 2015

Two important publications have appeared on the art of tapestry maker, painter, printer, publisher, and stained glass designer, Pieter Coecke van Aelst (Aelst, 1502 – Brussels, 1550). The main work is [...] Read More

National Gallery Catalogues: The Sixteenth Century Netherlandish Paintings with French Paintings before 1600

By Lorne Campbell

London: National Gallery Company, distributed by Yale University Press, 2014. 2 vols. 856 pp, 700 color and 175 b&w illus. ISBN 978-1-85709-370-4

Review published April 2015

Surely for scholars the most important contribution that a museum curator can provide is a systematic catalogue of the paintings in the permanent collection, the more so in a major collection. Thus [...] Read More

Picturing Experience in the Early Printed Book: Breydenbach’s Peregrinatio from Venice to Jerusalem

By Elizabeth Ross

University Park: Penn State University Press, 2014. 256 pp, 27 color, 84 b&w illus. ISBN 978-0-271-06122-1

Review published April 2015

Elizabeth Ross writes convincing arguments in elegant prose. Moreover, her book is a refreshing, jargon-free study, dripping with ideas and analysis. Penn State Press has outdone itself to produce [...] Read More

‘A la mode italienne’. Commerce du luxe et diplomatie dans les Pays-Bas méridionaux, 1477-1530. Edition criticque de documents de la Chambre des comptes de Lille

By Federica Veratelli

Lille: Presses universitaires du Septentrion. Archives départementales du Nord Villeneuve d’Ascq, 2013. 418 pp, illustrated. ISBN 978-2-77574-0424-9

Review published April 2015

This book comes as a surprise, as it is an unusual book, both in terms of its subject matter and in terms of its method. The Italian art historian Federica Veratelli undertook several years of [...] Read More

Men of Taste. Essays on Art Collecting in East-Central Europe

By Ingrid Ciulisová

Bratislava: VEDA 2014. 174pp, 58 illus, most color. ISBN 978-80-224-1338-1

Review published November 2014

A milestone in art history scholarship was laid down a quarter-century ago with the founding of the Journal of the History of Collections, and incrementally our gaps of knowledge of provenance and [...] Read More

Deaf, Dumb & Brilliant: Johannes Thopas Master Draughtsman

By Rudi Ekkart

Cat. exh. Suermondt-Ludwig Museum, Aachen, March 13 – June 22, 2014; Museum Het Rembrandthuis, Amsterdam, July 12 – October 5, 2014. London: Paul Holberton Publishing 2014. 200 pp., 166 illus., some in color. ISBN 978-1-907372-67-4

Review published November 2014

Books that focus attention on unheralded masters of talent and historical significance are rarities these days. For that reason alone, Rudi Ekkart’s Deaf, Dumb & Brilliant deserves special notice. [...] Read More

Historians of Netherlandish Art Reviews

Book Reviews