Thijs Weststeijn

Rens Bod

Jaap Maat

This comprehensive history of the humanities focuses on the modern period (1850-2000). The contributors, including Floris Cohen, Lorraine Daston and Ingrid Rowland, survey the rise of the humanities in interaction with the natural and social sciences, offering new perspectives on the interaction between disciplines in Europe and Asia and new insights generated by digital humanities.

The Modern Humanities

The Making of the Humanities, Volume III

How did painters and their public speak about art in Rembrandt's age? This book about the writings of the painter-poet Samuel van Hoogstraten, one of Rembrandt's pupils, examines a wide variety of themes from painting practice and theory from the Dutch Golden Age. It addresses the contested issue of 'Dutch realism' and its hidden symbolism, as well as Rembrandt's concern with representing emotions in order to involve the spectator. Diverse aspects of imitation and illusion come to the fore, such as the theory behind sketchy or 'rough' brushwork and the active role played by the viewer's imagination. Taking as its starting point discussions in Rembrandt's studio, this unique study provides an ambitious overview of Dutch artists' ideas on painting.

Samuel Van Hoogstraten's Art Theory and the Legitimation of Painting in the Dutch Golden Age

The Visible World

How did the classical tradition survive on the North Sea shores? This book explores the writings of Franciscus Junius that paired scholarship to painter’s practice in the seventeenth century. They illuminate the reception of antiquity and the creation of an Anglo-Dutch artistic Arcadia.

The Vernacular Arcadia of Franciscus Junius (1591-1677)

Art and Antiquity in the Netherlands and Britain

The intellectual position of Margaret Cavendish, Duchess of Newcastle, has been controversial since the seventeenth century. According to her Dutch contemporaries, she still remains princeps ingenii: prominent among the elite. In his essay Thijs Weststeijn outlines a beautiful picture of this philosopher and her fifteen-year stay in Rotterdam and Antwerp. Thijs Weststeijn won the ABG VN Essayprijs for this essay.

Filosofie en schilderkunst in de Gouden Eeuw

Margaret Cavendish in de Nederlanden

The versatile painter, poet, courtier and European traveller Samuel van Hoogstraten (1627-1678), one of Rembrandt's pupils, has received much scholarly attention in the last two decades. Whereas older historians allotted him a marginal role as a minor figure in his master's studio, he is now recognized for his central position in the world of art and letters in the Dutch Golden Age. This new evaluation is mainly due to careful studies of his treatise on painting, 'Inleyding tot de Hooge Schoole der Schilderkonst' (Introduction to the Academy of Painting, 1678). His book has been mined for unique insights not only into Rembrandt's working methods but also into profounder problems relative to Dutch art and culture, such as pictorial realism, imitation and illusion, the rise of landscape and still life and the status of the 'learned artist'.

Thijs Weststeijn

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