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Karel van Mander and his Foundation of the Noble, Free Art of Painting
First English Translation, with Introduction and Commentary
Series:
Author:
Winner of the 2023 Roland H. Bainton Prize for Art History
Written by the poet-painter Karel van Mander, who finished it in June 1603, the Grondt der edel, vry schilderconst (Foundation of the Noble, Free Art of Painting) was the first systematic treatise on schilderconst (the art of painting / picturing) to be published in Dutch (Haarlem: Paschier van Wes[t]busch, 1604). This English-language edition of the Grondt, accompanied by an introductory monograph and a full critical apparatus, provides unprecedented access to Van Manderâs crucially important art treatise. The book sheds light on key terms and critical categories such as schilder, manier, uyt zijn selven doen, welstandt, leven and gheest, and wel schilderen, and both exemplifies and explicates the authorâs distinctive views on the complementary forms and functions of history and landscape.
Written by the poet-painter Karel van Mander, who finished it in June 1603, the Grondt der edel, vry schilderconst (Foundation of the Noble, Free Art of Painting) was the first systematic treatise on schilderconst (the art of painting / picturing) to be published in Dutch (Haarlem: Paschier van Wes[t]busch, 1604). This English-language edition of the Grondt, accompanied by an introductory monograph and a full critical apparatus, provides unprecedented access to Van Manderâs crucially important art treatise. The book sheds light on key terms and critical categories such as schilder, manier, uyt zijn selven doen, welstandt, leven and gheest, and wel schilderen, and both exemplifies and explicates the authorâs distinctive views on the complementary forms and functions of history and landscape.
Walter S. Melion is Asa Griggs Candler Professor of Art History at Emory University in Atlanta, where he directs the Fox Center for Humanistic Inquiry (Emoryâs institute for advanced study in the humanities). He is author of three monographs and over eighty articles, co-author of two exhibition catalogues, and editor or co-editor of more than twenty volumes.
âexcellent ⦠The chances are that even in Dutch universities, this translation will become the primary point of access for students of early modern Netherlandish art in the Low Countries.â
Koenraad Jonckheere, Ghent University. In: Historians of Netherlandish Art Reviews, September 2023.
âWalter Melion is the ideal scholar, if not the only scholar, one would want to produce an English-language edition of Karel van Manderâs foundational treatise on the art of painting. From the rich and erudite introduction to the lively and eminently readable translation, this book â an invaluable resource for future scholarship â at last brings one of the key art-theoretical texts of the early modern Netherlands to a wider audience.â
Marisa Bass, Yale University
âWalter Melionâs superlative translation of Karel van Manderâs Foundation of the Noble, Free Art of Painting is cause for celebration, bringing us at long last an authoritative English critical edition of this singularly influential text. With deep erudition and sensitivity to Van Manderâs interconnected literary and artistic preoccupations, Melion reveals anew the originality of the great Flemish painter-poet and the ongoing salience of his work today.â
Celeste Brusati, University of Michigan
Koenraad Jonckheere, Ghent University. In: Historians of Netherlandish Art Reviews, September 2023.
âWalter Melion is the ideal scholar, if not the only scholar, one would want to produce an English-language edition of Karel van Manderâs foundational treatise on the art of painting. From the rich and erudite introduction to the lively and eminently readable translation, this book â an invaluable resource for future scholarship â at last brings one of the key art-theoretical texts of the early modern Netherlands to a wider audience.â
Marisa Bass, Yale University
âWalter Melionâs superlative translation of Karel van Manderâs Foundation of the Noble, Free Art of Painting is cause for celebration, bringing us at long last an authoritative English critical edition of this singularly influential text. With deep erudition and sensitivity to Van Manderâs interconnected literary and artistic preoccupations, Melion reveals anew the originality of the great Flemish painter-poet and the ongoing salience of his work today.â
Celeste Brusati, University of Michigan
Acknowledgments
List of Illustrations
About the Author
Introduction
â1âThe Intertextual Network of Dedicatory Epistles and Prefaces
â2âThe Sources, Title-Page, and Scope of the Grondt
â3âLaying a Comparative Foundation for the Schilder-Boeck
â4âKey Terms and Critical Categories
â5âEkphrastic Usage in the Schilder-Boeck
â6âLandschap and byvoechsel: Van Mander on Landscape and History, Simulation and Dissimulation
â7âPrécis of the Poemâs Fourteen Chapters
âPrefaces and Selected Preliminary Poemsâ
Chapter 1: âExhortation, or Admonition to up and coming young Paintersâ
Chapter 2: âOn Drawing, or the Art of Delineatingâ
Chapter 3: âAnalogy, Proportion, or Measurement of the Parts of the Human Bodyâ
Chapter 4: âOn the Attitude, Decorum, and Decorous Motion of a Human Figureâ
Chapter 5: âOn the Ordonnance and Invention of Historiesâ
Chapter 6: âPortrayal of the Affects, Passions, Desires, and Sorrows of Personsâ
Chapter 7: âOn Reflection, Reverberation, re-reflected luster, or re-reflectionâ
Chapter 8: âOn Landscapeâ
Chapter 9: âOn Cattle, Animals, and Birdsâ
Chapter 10: âOn Fabrics or Draperyâ
Chapter 11: âOn Sorting and Combining Colorsâ
Chapter 12: âOn Painting Well, or Coloringâ
Chapter 13: âOn the Origin, Nature, Force, and Effect of Colorsâ
Chapter 14: âOn the Interpretation of Colors, and What They Can Signifyâ
Register of Commonplaces: âTable of the Foundation of the Art of Paintingâ
Commentary
List of Illustrations
About the Author
Introduction
â1âThe Intertextual Network of Dedicatory Epistles and Prefaces
â2âThe Sources, Title-Page, and Scope of the Grondt
â3âLaying a Comparative Foundation for the Schilder-Boeck
â4âKey Terms and Critical Categories
â5âEkphrastic Usage in the Schilder-Boeck
â6âLandschap and byvoechsel: Van Mander on Landscape and History, Simulation and Dissimulation
â7âPrécis of the Poemâs Fourteen Chapters
Den Grondt: The Foundation of the Noble, Free Art of Painting: In which her form, origin, and nature are placed before the eyes of inquisitive Youth, in discrete Parts, in Rhymed Verse.
âPrefaces and Selected Preliminary Poemsâ
Chapter 1: âExhortation, or Admonition to up and coming young Paintersâ
Chapter 2: âOn Drawing, or the Art of Delineatingâ
Chapter 3: âAnalogy, Proportion, or Measurement of the Parts of the Human Bodyâ
Chapter 4: âOn the Attitude, Decorum, and Decorous Motion of a Human Figureâ
Chapter 5: âOn the Ordonnance and Invention of Historiesâ
Chapter 6: âPortrayal of the Affects, Passions, Desires, and Sorrows of Personsâ
Chapter 7: âOn Reflection, Reverberation, re-reflected luster, or re-reflectionâ
Chapter 8: âOn Landscapeâ
Chapter 9: âOn Cattle, Animals, and Birdsâ
Chapter 10: âOn Fabrics or Draperyâ
Chapter 11: âOn Sorting and Combining Colorsâ
Chapter 12: âOn Painting Well, or Coloringâ
Chapter 13: âOn the Origin, Nature, Force, and Effect of Colorsâ
Chapter 14: âOn the Interpretation of Colors, and What They Can Signifyâ
Register of Commonplaces: âTable of the Foundation of the Art of Paintingâ
Commentary
Art Historians, Literary Historians, students of Dutch and Flemish art of the fifteenth to early seventeenth centuries (both graduate and undergraduate), and the general public interested in art of the Low Countries.
Keywords: Art Theory and Practice, Art History, Poetry and Poetics, Rhetoric, Dutch and Flemish Art, Art of the Low Countries, Karel van Mander, Giorgio Vasari, Lodovico Dolce, Gian Paolo Lomazzo, Schilder (painter / picturer), Schilderconst (art of painting / picturing), Teyckenconst (art of drawing / delineation), Manier (manner), Handelingh (handling), Uyt zijn selven doen (from out of oneâs self), Leven and Gheest (life and spirit), Welstandt (Concinnity), Wel schilderen (Painting expertly).
Keywords: Art Theory and Practice, Art History, Poetry and Poetics, Rhetoric, Dutch and Flemish Art, Art of the Low Countries, Karel van Mander, Giorgio Vasari, Lodovico Dolce, Gian Paolo Lomazzo, Schilder (painter / picturer), Schilderconst (art of painting / picturing), Teyckenconst (art of drawing / delineation), Manier (manner), Handelingh (handling), Uyt zijn selven doen (from out of oneâs self), Leven and Gheest (life and spirit), Welstandt (Concinnity), Wel schilderen (Painting expertly).