Acknowledgments
When I first began to research the peregrinations of Flemish painters and paintings through Spain, I hardly imagined that I – like them – would settle for such an extended period so far from home. I am hugely fortunate that along the way, I have encountered so many people who have made me feel less like a foreigner in these distant places.
In Madrid, colleagues who became friends offered art historical, archival, bibliographical, and other guidance, not to mention delightful evenings on terrazas, and for this I thank James Amelang, Laura Bass, Fernando Checa, María Cruz de Carlos, Carmen García-Frías, David García López, Bea Hidalgo, Marián Kruijer Fernández, Carmen Morais, Macarena Moralejo, Miguel Morán, the late María Jesús Muñoz González, José Juan Pérez Preciado, Teresa Posada Kubissa, Elena Vázquez, José Luis Vega Loeches, and Alejandro Vergara. For graciously facilitating my visits to view paintings – whether in museum storage depots, auction houses, galleries or private collections – and for particularly astute assistance in obtaining images, I am grateful to Roberto Alonso, Ángel Aterido, Mar Borobia, Peter Cherry, Elisa d’Ors, José Antonio de Urbina, Consuelo Durán, Carmen Espinosa, Ana García Sanz, José Miguel Granados, María Ángeles Granados Ortega, José Eloy Hortal Muñoz, María Ángeles Ibañez Gómez, Benito Navarrete, Javier Portús, Ana Ros Togores, Leticia Sánchez Hernández, Esther Sanz Murillo, and Cristina Uribe.
In Antwerp, I have enjoyed the warm welcome of a number of overlapping (art) historical communities. Luc Duerloo generously offered his wisdom and support long before my arrival in Antwerp, and he and his fellow history professors at the University of Antwerp, especially Bruno Blondé, Guido Marnef, and Maarten Van Ginderachter have been my gracious hosts and subsequently my department colleagues. At the Rubenianum, I could not have felt more at home. For their collegiality and friendship, I extend my profound thanks to the late Arnout Balis (who shared with me not only his vast knowledge and insight but also his personal archive), Fiona Healy, Lieneke Nijkamp, Bert Schepers, Ute Staes, Ben van Beneden, Véronique Van de Kerckhof, Hans Vlieghe, and Bert Watteeuw. Additional colleagues and friends in Belgium – Virginie D’haene, Karolien De Clippel, Eduardo Lamas Delgado (ever generous, particularly with his personal library), Tine Meganck, Sophie Rochmes, Emely Serruys, Prisca Valkeneers, Hildegard Van de Velde, Katlijne Van der Stighelen, Nico Van Hout, Sabine Van Sprang, and Filip Vermeylen – have been valued and generous interlocutors. Koen Jonckheere has been a crucial source of guidance and help on everything from research and teaching to the salvaging of waylaid visa applications.
Long before my transatlantic move east, an earlier move to the East Coast strongly shaped my trajectory. Jeffrey Muller provided my art historical christening, offering a model of rigor paired with incomparable humor. Deborah Cohen has shared with me her wisdom on all things academic and historical for almost two decades. I consider myself extremely fortunate to have been doubly and sagely advised during graduate school (and beyond) by Thomas DaCosta Kaufmann and Christopher Heuer. Both challenged and encouraged me, incisively engaging with my work on its own terms. A number of conversations I had with the late Jonathan Brown in and around Marquand Library developed into a kind of “running tutorial,” as he aptly called it, which contributed decisively to the direction of my research. Bernard Aikema and Jos Koldeweij became endlessly generous advisors abroad.
During and after my years in Providence, Greenwich, and Princeton, my interests were nurtured by these and other teachers, colleagues, and friends, including Adam Eaker, Ed Eigen, Jesús Escobar, Jorge Flores, Patricia Fortini Brown, Rob Fucci, Tim Harris, Deborah Howard, Lisa Jacobson, Suzanne Karr Schmidt, George Landow, Andrea Lepage, Lia Markey, Sarah Moran, Marije Osnabrugge, Tessa Paneth-Pollak, Felipe Pereda, Larry Silver, Eric Jan Sluijter, Sandra van Ginhoven, Lara Yeager-Crasselt, and Cathy Zerner. Ken Silver, Peter Sutton, Anne von Stuelpnagel, and Deborah Wilde were instrumental in fostering my enthusiasm for museum work.
The staffs of Princeton’s Marquand and Firestone Libraries, the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Watson Library, the Frick Art Reference Library, the New York Public Library, the Biblioteca Nacional de España, the Biblioteca del Museo Nacional del Prado, the Erfgoedbibliotheek Hendrik Conscience, and the libraries of the Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten Antwerpen, the University of Antwerp, and above all the Rubenianum, have helped me enormously. I am also hugely grateful to the staffs of Madrid’s Archivo General del Palacio and Archivo Histórico de Protocolos, for their cheerful and patient assistance, and Antwerp’s Felixarchief, in particular Marie Juliette Marinus.
It is a pleasure to acknowledge the many institutions that have funded my research and writing: Fulbright, the Belgian American Educational Foundation, Mellon-Council for European Studies, and Princeton’s Donald and Mary Hyde Fellowship for Research Abroad, Spears Travel Fund, and Barr Ferree Foundation Fund for Publications, and additional grants from Princeton’s Art and Archaeology Department – not to mention the department’s resourceful staff, especially the late Susan Lehre, Maureen Killeen, and Diane Schulte.
In the course of finishing my dissertation and transforming it into this book, crucial conversations with Aaron Hyman critically shaped my approach; his words of wisdom – both substantive and logistical – and specific suggestions smoothed out all stages of this process. Diane Newman generously read and commented on my manuscript. Lisa Regan carefully crafted the index. At Brill, I am grateful to Liesbeth Hugenholtz, Ester Lels, and the board members of the series, Studies in Netherlandish Art and Cultural History, particularly Perry Chapman and the anonymous peer reviewers she enlisted.
Joris Billen cooked many meals and humored the incursion of Flemish art into our bike rides, vacations, and daily life. Sander’s perfectly prompt arrival slightly delayed this book in the most wonderful way possible. His good-naturedness, flexibility, and smile have made finishing it far more enjoyable.
I cannot even begin to enumerate the ways in which my parents, Dennis and Ronna Newman, have contributed to this book. They shared with me throughout my childhood their love of art museums and encouraged me long before I knew what I wanted to do to pursue whatever course I found most intellectually satisfying and enjoyable. They have trekked with me to countless museums and churches to view paintings, read and reread my work, patiently and wisely offered advice and help on matters both consequential and trivial, proofread my Spanish transcriptions, engaged substantively with me on particular arguments, and remained unconditionally interested in and enthusiastic about my work. This book is for them, with love and gratitude.