Art & Art History The Ghent Altarpiece Andrea Mantegna Research and Humanist Aesthetics, Faith, Conservation and the Force of Images of the Exterior by Stephen Campbell edited by Bart Fransen This book re-examines the career of Andrea and Cyriel Stroo Mantegna (1431-1506) and his intellectual The outer panels of the network, to re-open questions of the locations of Ghent Altarpiece had humanism, the notion of “humanist art,” or painting been overpainted to a as a form of discourse that far from being ancillary considerable extent. The to poetry, history, or rhetoric, served as a model for virtuosity of the Eyckian all three. technique and aesthetics remained hardly visible. And yet, this 280p, 150 col illus (Harvey Miller Publishers, April 2020, Renovatio Artium 8) hardcover, had never been observed before the start of the conservation 9781912554348, $130.00. Special Offer $104.00 treatment. By removing the overpaint, the tonal richness and the coherent rendering of light and space once again came to the Festival and Violence fore. The sharp observation skills, the quick, accurate execution, Princely Entries in the Context of War, the knowledge, curiosity and ingenuity about all the things that 1480–1635 are depicted, are now unveiled after centuries. The subtleties of by Margaret McGowan the Eyckian technique could also be mapped out in more detail. European Renaissance Festivals are noted for their How the Van Eycks managed to keep the final result and the extravagance, for their inherited classical culture, desired effect in mind during every phase of the execution, from and as evidence of how court and civic spectacles imprimatura to finishing touch. The artists made a statement could express political, religious, social and economic about the art of painting, giving ‘technique’ as such a new aspirations. In this new monograph, the accent is prominence. The Ghent Altarpiece may be understood at some firmly on the violent context of Magnificence: it point as a major showpiece for a highly sophisticated pictorial examines how war affected the minds and practice of technique. both artists and princes, and shows how victims and their suffering were as prominent in 430p (Brepols Publishers, February 2020, Contributions to the Study festival as were conquerors and their projections of victory. of the Flemish Primitives 14) hardcover, 9782930054384, $86.00. Special Offer $69.00 303p, 9 col & 48 b/w illus (Brepols Publishers, September 2019, European Festival Studies: 1450–1700) hardcover, 9782503583334, $111.00. Special Offer $89.00 Photo by Ellywa, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons. 70 Enterprise Drive, Suite 2 • Bristol, CT 06010, USA Distributor of phone: (+1) 860 584 6546 • fax: (+1) 860 516 4873 Scholarly Books www.isdistribution.com • [email protected] Fra Angelico Strangeness and Recognition Painter, Friar, Mystic Mystery and Familiarity in by Timothy Verdon Renaissance Paintings of Christ Fra Angelico offers a unique by Chloë Reddaway encounter with the celebrated How do you paint a figure who is painter, seen through the eyes of fully human and fully divine? How Monsignor Timothy Verdon. As an do you paint Christ? Strangeness and art historian and (like Angelico) a Recognition takes a fresh look at well- Catholic priest, Monsignor Verdon known Renaissance paintings of Christ approaches the work of the only and shows how surprising and deeply artist ever beatified through the ‘strange’ they can be. This book brings an theological lens it deserves, bringing together Fra Angelico’s art and his faith. imaginative and affective theological perspective to the viewing experience Praised by his contemporaries, by later art historians, and by generations as it explores the twin roles played by ‘strangeness’ and ‘recognition’ in of viewers, Fra Angelico’s art is known for its exceptional combination responding to the challenge of creating and relating to images of Christ. By of piety and painterly skill. This book explores the spiritual and mystical confounding expectations and defamiliarizing subject matter, the ambiguity foundations of the friar-painter’s work, and traces his artistic evolution from and mystery of these paintings disturbs viewers’ expectations and reconnects his early work, to the frescoes for the covent of San Marco in Florence, his them with the extraordinary mystery of the Incarnation. While neither Annunciations, and the chapel for Pope Niccolò V. words nor images can fully describe God, through a questioning, challenging 384p, 247 col illus (Brepols Publishers, March 2020, Arts and the Sacred 3) dialogue with paintings viewers can enter into transformative relationships hardcover, 9782503580333, $195.00. Special Offer $156.00 with paintings. Drawing on a diverse range of theologians, philosophers, art historians and art theorists, and building on her own earlier work, Chloë Visualizing Justice in Reddaway shows the theological potential of Christian images, even when Burgundian Prose Romance they are far removed from their original contexts. A major contribution to Text and Image in Manuscripts of the emerging field of visual theology, this book will appeal to scholars of the Wavrin Master (1450s–1460s) theology and art history alike, as well as to the museum-going public. 230p, 69 col illus (Brepols Publishers, July 2019, Arts and the Sacred 4) by Rosalind Brown-Grant hardcover, 9782503581200, $130.00. Special Offer $104.00 This is the first monograph devoted to manuscripts illuminated by the mid- French Painting ca. 1500 fifteenth-century artist known as the New Discoveries, New Approaches Wavrin Master, so-called after his chief patron, Jean de Wavrin, chronicler and edited by Christine Seidel councilor at the court of Philip the Good of and Nicholas Herman Burgundy. Specializing in the production of pseudo-historical prose romances In the years around 1500, France was featuring the putative ancestors of actual Burgundian families, the artist was undergoing profound demographic an attentive interpreter of these texts which were designed to commemorate and political shifts. Responding to the the chivalric feats of past heroes and to foster their emulation by noble kingdom’s rise as a geostrategic power, readers of the day. In a corpus of 10 paper manuscripts containing the texts artists broadened their outlook and of 15 romances and over 650 watercolor miniatures, the stylized, expressive produced stunning images to reflect images of the Wavrin Master bring out with particular clarity the lessons in this new reality. This volume presents a justice which these works offered their contemporary audience, many of wide array of new discoveries related to French painting and manuscript whom would have been responsible for upholding the law in their territories. illumination of the period. 382p, 140 col illus (Brepols Publishers, May 2020, Burgundica 29) hardcover, 200p, 32 col & 120 b/w illus (Brepols Publishers, April 2020, Ars Nova 18) 9782503586335, $129.00. Special Offer $104.00 hardcover, 9782503553191, $130.00. Special Offer $104.00 2 www.isdistribution.com Quote promotional code 1564–20 for Special Offers (+1) (860) 584 6546 The Museum as Experience Jacob Jordaens and Spain An Email Odyssey through Artists’ by Matias Diaz Pardon and Collectors’ Museums This monograph is dedicated by Dario Libero Gamboni to the painter Jacob Jordaens Museums created by artists and/or (Antwerp,1593–1678) and his collectors are a favorite destination of relationship with Spain. The book is museum lovers and raise important a catalogue raisonné of the painter’s issues in connection with the history preserved works that have had a and evolution of art museums at large. long and close link with the Court They have developed in a critical relation and Spanish patrons, both inside and to large, collective or encyclopaedic outside of Spain. His paintings and museums, defending a primacy of experience and intimacy. And they remain designs are contemplated in this book in a deep and detailed way. In these attached to the persons of their founders, functioning as monuments and pages the reader will find out about Jordaens’ work method, his sources of even mausoleums. Yet despite their appeal, a recent surge of new creations inspiration and the solutions he chose for the commissions that he carried out. and a wealth of monographic documentation, no general study of the topic 648p, 550 col illus (Brepols Publishers, September 2019) paperback, has been attempted. The Museum as Experience describes and analyses the 9788494858536, $312.00. Special Offer $250.00 phenomenon as a whole, from its beginnings around 1800 to the present and from its European origin to a worldwide extension. It examines in Willem van den Blocke depth fifteen case studies distributed across the globe and chosen for their A Sculptor of the Low Countries representative character and the quality of their original arrangement. Richly in the Baltic Region illustrated with many unpublished documents, it is a scholarly work that by Franciszek Skibinski can be read like a novel. It argues that artists and collectors museums are Although entirely forgotten until best understood as author museums and make it possible to enjoy and study the beginning of the nineteenth display as a mode of expression and communication. century, van den Blocke was one of 404p, 140 col & 60 b/w illus (Brepols Publishers, January 2020, Museums and the most accomplished sculptors Ideas) paperback, 9782503583518, $65.00. Special Offer $52.00 of the late sixteenth century in the Baltic Region and in Central Europe. Museology and Values His activities in the Baltic region Art and Human Dignity provide an excellent basis for a case study, since his career perfectly in the 21st Century exemplifies challenges encountered by Netherlandish sculptors abroad in edited by Timothy Verdon the sixteenth century. Despite his importance for the artistic development Do 21st-century women and men still in the Baltic region, knowledge about Van den Blocke’s life and activities believe that museums can, through has nonetheless remained limited.