With the publication of “JHNA Conversations 1: Expanded and Expanding Narratives in the Museum,” in vol. 13.2, Summer 2021, the editorial board of JHNA is excited to initiate a series of roundtables pertaining to topics of pressing importance for the field of early modern art and visual cultures. We welcome written feedback from readers on the contents and format of this this first JHNA Conversation, which features moderator Yao-Fen You, and curators Elizabeth Cleland, Alejandro Vergara, and Bert Watteeuw. Please send your comments, including suggestions or proposals for further roundtables, to editor@jhna.org. While reader feedback will not be published, it will provide invaluable assistance in refining JHNA’s development of the roundtable feature.
Also in this issue, C. Richard Johnson Jr., William A. Sethares, and Margaret Holben Ellis use watermarks in Rembrandt’s prints to introduce simple, open-source image processing software that allows scholars to create animated overlays to compare and match two watermark images with ease as well as a high degree of accuracy.
Marisa Mandabach, focusing on three images of spontaneous generation by Peter Paul Rubens, argues that Rubens’s learned concepts of nature were informed by an artisanal understanding of the generative role of matter—pigments and mediating liquids—within painting.
Eric Jan Sluijter, in an augmented translation of an influential essay from the catalogue for the 1996 exhibition Jan van Goyen, examines the strategies and innovations—in style, subject matter, technique, and price level—that Van Goyen used to position himself as a leader in the art market. We are grateful to Nicolette Sluijter-Seijffert for her nuanced translation.