Plaster Casts in the Life and Art of Seventeenth-Century Dutch Painters

Absence and Presence

Series: 

In the early modern Dutch Republic, plaster casts offered artists a way to overcome limitations of space and time, and to define themselves. This book presents the first comprehensive account of the impact of plaster casts on the artistic practice, intellectual endeavors, and social status of seventeenth-century Dutch painters.
These modest objects were, in fact, real works of sculpture, incorporated into a variety of compositions where they signalled an artist’s ambitions and technical virtuosity. Marginalized in the history of Dutch art, plaster casts lie at the center of this study’s novel interpretations of paintings and drawings, paired with period sources.
Copyright Year:
2025
E-Book (PDF)
Availability:
Published
ISBN:
978-90-04-72458-7
Publication:
30 Jun 2025
Hardback
Availability:
Published
ISBN:
978-90-04-72457-0
Publication:
06 Aug 2025
Cover Plaster Casts in the Life and Art of Seventeenth-Century Dutch Painters

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Isabella Lores-Chavez, Ph.D. (Columbia University, 2022), is the Associate Curator of European Paintings at the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco. She specializes in early modern Netherlandish art, with a focus on seventeenth-century Dutch paintings.
Acknowledgements
List of Figures

Introduction
 1 Loss Redefined
 2 Plaster Casts in Renaissance Europe
 3 Classicism and Pedagogy in the Netherlands
 4 Plaster the Material
 5 Presence and Interaction

1 To Touch and Turn: the Plaster Cast and the Draftsman’s Line
 1 Sculpture in Two Dimensions
 2 The Tête-à-Tête
 3 “De Plyster Tekenaars”
 4 Plaster Turned to Line
 5 Attention and Devotion

2 Bodies naer het leven: Plaster Casts in Dutch Art Treatises

3 Encounters with Plaster in the Dutch Republic
 1 Labor around Plaster
 2 Pleistergieters and Other Practitioners
 3 Plaster Casts in Dutch Homes
 4 Artists’ Collections
 5 The Multiplicity of Plaster Casts

4 Plaster Companions in the Self-Fashioned Painter’s Studio
 1 Conversant in Plaster Casts
 2 The Recurring Plaster Cast
 3 At Home in the Studio
 4 Pictura Outfitted
 5 The Distinguished Dutch Painter

5 Plaster Casts and the Ambitions of Still Life
 1 Pieter Claesz and the Splintertrecker
 2 The Vanitas and the Plaster Bust
 3 The Craft of Duplication
 4 Artistic Lineages
 5 The Painter-Collector
 6 Living Plaster

Conclusion: Absence and Restoration
Appendix: Plaster Casts in Dutch Paintings, 1600–1750
Notes
Bibliography
Index
Researchers studying the relationship between painting and sculpture, especially in Dutch art, scholars working on liveliness and sensorial engagement, and readers interested in interdisciplinary approaches. Keywords: painting, sculpture, drawing, antiquity, Renaissance, Netherlands, Italy, artisan, tacit knowledge, labor, still life, humanism, practice, copies, liveliness, encounter, the senses, amateur, connoisseur, training, workshop, pedagogy, materiality, interaction, Karel van Mander, Samuel van Hoogstraten, Willem Goeree, Gerrit Dou, Pieter Claesz, David Bailly.
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Publisher:
Brill
Language:
English
Pages:
xxii, 320 pp.: 160 color ills.
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004724587

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