The Art of Describing Dutch Art in the Seventeenth Century

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Oct 25, 2013 Caroline rated it really liked information technology

This review has been hidden because information technology contains spoilers. To view it, click here. This book is in essence a treatise on how seventeenth century Dutch painting was a descriptive art. This was specially so when it was compared to the highly admired narrative art of the fourth dimension - plant in Italy - with its illustrations of human figures in history, myth, and Biblical stories.

(My notes below are mostly direct quotes from the book.)

"Dutch painting was non and could not be anything but the portrait of Holland, its external paradigm, faithful, exact, complete, life-like, without whatever ador

This book is in essence a treatise on how seventeenth century Dutch painting was a descriptive fine art. This was especially so when it was compared to the highly admired narrative art of the fourth dimension - found in Italy - with its illustrations of human figures in history, myth, and Biblical stories.

(My notes beneath are mostly directly quotes from the volume.)

"Dutch painting was not and could not be annihilation simply the portrait of Kingdom of the netherlands, its external image, faithful, exact, complete, life-like, without any adornment."
Fromentin, 1876 .

The author says that near of the history of fine art has been geared up to the art of Italia..... with its artists and their works being seen as the elevation of creative accomplishment. This makes it hard to articulate the very dissimilar talents that 1 finds in the work of Dutch artists. She then goes on to do a chiliad job of doing just that.

Some of the basic defining factors institute in Northern art

It was the art of describing.

Information technology was realistic.

It had a stilled or arrested quality.
There was attending to the surface of the
earth – which is achieved at the
expense of the representation of
narrative action. (Italian art
is much more vigorous than Dutch
art).

There was a propensity for concentrating
on landscapes. Even if the painting had
another chief subject, any landscape present
would be carefully rendered.

At that place was a great desire for external
exactness, and the endeavor to exercise too many
things too well. (Everything in the
movie had to be reproduced perfectly.)

The stress was on seeing and representing.

There was a frequent absence of a positioned
viewer.

You would often find a play with corking
contrasts of calibration(eastward.g., a
huge cow in the foreground
would be amusingly played off
confronting a tiny, distant church building belfry).

There is ofttimes the absence of a prior frame.
(The globe depicted in Dutch paintings frequently
seems cut off by the edges of the work,
or conversely, seems to extend
beyond its premises as if the frame were
an afterthought and not a prior
defining device).

Dutch artists often paint a wide-angle
view of their subjects. These works
do non stand for a fictive, framed window
view of their discipline.

At that place is the formidable sense of the picture as a
surface (like a mirror or map, but not a
window), on which words along with
objects tin can be replicated or inscribed.

It is difficult to trace stylistic development
in the work of Dutch artists. Fifty-fifty the
most naïve viewer can see much
continuity in northern art, from
van Eyck to Vermeer. There is consistency
rather than innovation.

Dutch civilization was obsessed with
observation. Magnifying glasses,
telescopes, and the camera obscura.
All these means of intensifying seeing
were of much fascination in the Due north.

In The netherlands images proliferated
everywhere – in books, tapestries,
table linens, painted onto tiles and
framed on walls. The visual civilisation
was key to the life of society.

The Dutch had an obsession with
maps and atlases – equally vehicles of
cognition and for carrying details.
At that place was much overlap betwixt
highly pictorial maps, and pictures
which were very map-like in the
mode they were equanimous.
Many landscapes and townscape
pictures were seen - like maps – as ways
of observing and describing. They
were often topographical in
graphic symbol, likewise equally existence beautiful.

This Dutch concentration on observation has its drawbacks….the emotion often found in looser painting styles is missing.

"January van Eyck's eye operates as a microscope and telescope at the same time…and then that the beholder is compelled to oscillate between a position reasonably far from the painting and many positions very close to it…However, such perfection had to be bought at a price. Neither a microscope nor a telescope is a proficient instrument with which to view human emotion…The emphasis is on repose existence rather than action… Measured by ordinary standards (ie the standards of Italian or narrative painting), the world of Jan van Eyck is static.
Erwin Panofsky "Early Netherlandish Painting" 1953

And rather than the drama found in Italian art, Dutch art is concerned with the everyday.

"Dutch art represents pleasure taken in a world total of pleasures: the pleasures of familial bonds, pleasures in possessions, pleasures in the towns, the churches, the state. In these images the seventeenth century appears to exist 1 long Sunday afterward the troubled times of the previous century."
JQ van Regteren Altena. 1961

In fact there is a tradition in The netherlands of 'historiating' portraits…..whereby figures were made to represent historical figures. But they are non very successful. These sitters look dressed upwards rather than 'transformed' into the subjects they are supposed to be representing. They fool no-one. The identity in the wait of their faces, and their telling domestic bearing, accept precedence over the artists'efforts to brand them look other than themselves. Rembrandt is the one exception, and he often succeeds where other Dutch artists have failed.

The observational skills of Dutch artists are where their talents prevarication….

"Vermeer seems almost not to care, or non fifty-fifty to know, what information technology is that he is painting. What do men call this wedge of calorie-free? A nose? A finger? What do nosotros know of its shape? To Vermeer none of that matters, the conceptual world of names and knowledge is forgotten, nothing concerns him but what is visible, the tone, the wedge of light."
Lawrence Gowing. 1952.

I didn't read all of this book. I ordered information technology specifically to find out more well-nigh the tradition of mapping in Holland, and how this was transformed or related to a love of pictures showing country and townscapes. Non just did the book describe this well with words – simply also with pictures, and I found it a fascinating read.

MAPS THAT Wait LIKE DRAWINGS AND PAINTINGS

DRAWINGS AND PAINTINGS THAT Wait Like MAPS

Illustrations:

1: Africa, In Willem Jansz Blaeu World Atlas: 1630

two: Brazil by George Markgraf: 1647

three: Bearding. The Siege of Haarlem.

four: Bearding. Dutch. The Polder. Het Grootslag, almost Enkhuizen.

5: Nijmegen. Braun & Hogenberg. Civitates Orbis Terrarum. 1587-1617.

6: Vermeer's View of Delft: 1660/1661

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"The Art of Describing" is an interesting book for those who are interested in starting their studies of Dutch art, especially that of the 17th century. It engages the reader with many questions and cites several important names of the Dutch Golden Era (as well as some of the European figures of the Enlightenment and Scientific Revolution). The writer gives many, many, many examples of paintings, which, for me, detracts the overall content. There are many instances in which Alpers makes a betoken "The Art of Describing" is an interesting volume for those who are interested in starting their studies of Dutch art, especially that of the 17th century. Information technology engages the reader with many questions and cites several of import names of the Dutch Golden Era (likewise as some of the European figures of the Enlightenment and Scientific Revolution). The author gives many, many, many examples of paintings, which, for me, detracts the overall content. There are many instances in which Alpers makes a point in i paragraph and for the next several pages extend her examples until it bores the reader. In the process, non just the involvement is lost, but the focus when and if regained does not accept the aforementioned grip as it would if not for and so many digressions. This was my fourth and nigh probably final reading of the book. I took advantage of the noesis in it, made many notes, studied and questioned its content. I tin access that, for a beginner, it may be a better and pleasant reading. That is, if not being straight to the point in an academic book does not get in your fretfulness. At that place is quite a lot to be learned with the topic written past the author and this book is a good start.

Thanks for reading!
To read more than of my thoughts on books visit my volume blog.

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Apr 07, 2011 Geoff Cain rated it it was astonishing

This is an incredible book on Dutch art except that it is also about history, science, map-making, etc. I found the book interesting and challenging. Alpers is a thorough scholar but you don't feel similar your being dragged through someone's dissertation and annotated bibliography along the way. I really appreciate the intersection of the arts and sciences here. This is part of my enquiry for a novel I am writing on art and identity. This book has changed the way I look at Dutch art. This is an incredible book on Dutch art except that it is also about history, science, map-making, etc. I found the book interesting and challenging. Alpers is a thorough scholar only you don't feel like your being dragged through someone's dissertation and annotated bibliography along the manner. I really appreciate the intersection of the arts and sciences here. This is function of my research for a novel I am writing on art and identity. This volume has changed the way I look at Dutch art. ...more than

Feb 08, 2021 Floris rated it really liked it

A bold account of Dutch visual culture in the seventeenth century, which offers something for the art-history enthusiast as well as the art-history ignoramus (like me). Being almost four decades old, some of what Alpers defines as innovative approaches seem quite self-evident by now, and withal I found her work to still offer some insightful ways of approaching visual culture. I like, for case, how she defines her object study as "picturing", as opposed to simply "pictures", in the Dutch Gold Ag A bold account of Dutch visual civilization in the seventeenth century, which offers something for the fine art-history enthusiast too as the art-history ignoramus (like me). Existence nigh four decades old, some of what Alpers defines as innovative approaches seem quite self-evident by now, and yet I found her piece of work to notwithstanding offer some insightful ways of approaching visual civilization. I like, for instance, how she defines her object study as "picturing", as opposed to simply "pictures", in the Dutch Golden Age, because 1) it calls attention to the making of pictures in addition to the finished products, 2) it 'emphasises the inseparability of maker, flick, and what is pictured', and 3) it allows for usa to await beyond pictures towards maps, mirros, lenses, and other visual media/tools (26). She does not lose herself in the latitude of this telescopic, and makes excellent employ of a myriad of paintings, drawings, etchings, etc. to complement her often abstract arguments nigh how Dutch artists saw and pictured. I also found her noesis and use of contemporary (natural) philosophical ideas and writings impressive. Overall this work seems to take aged quite nicely as an innovative piece of academic research! ...more

Senza l'occhio umano l'universo e' buio.

Non riesco a vedere lontano se abito in una pianura due east voglio scoprire e descrivere cosa vive al di la', ma se abito tra le vette vivo nel limite del mio orizzonte e rimpiango solo se al di la' di quelle vette degli dei scrivono libri che mai leggero'.

Fifty'arte italiana e' narrativa, nel senso che da' consistenza visiva a quel che si trova scritto nei libri, nella storia sacra east nelle leggende degli antichi. 50'arte nordica, due east quella olandese in particolare, eastward'

Senza l'occhio umano fifty'universo due east' buio.

Non riesco a vedere lontano se abito in una pianura e voglio scoprire e descrivere cosa vive al di la', ma se abito tra le vette vivo nel limite del mio orizzonte e rimpiango solo se al di la' di quelle vette degli dei scrivono libri che mai leggero'.

Fifty'arte italiana east' narrativa, nel senso che da' consistenza visiva a quel che si trova scritto nei libri, nella storia sacra e nelle leggende degli antichi. L'arte nordica, due east quella olandese in particolare, e' invece descrittiva, nel senso che rappresenta la realta' cosi' come essa eastward'. (copertina)

(Svetlana Alpers) Arriva in questo modo a ipotizzare una centralita' della vista, del vedere, come strumento di conoscenza nella cultura olandese del Seicento, rispetto a una presunta centralita' del pensiero, della scrittura, della storia nella cultura italiana. (xiv)

Nel riferirmi all'idea di arte nel Rinascimento italiano, ho in mente la definizione albertiana di quadro: una superficie o una tavola incorniciata, posta a una certa distanza da un osservatore che guarda, attraverso di essa, un mondo altro o sostitutivo. Nel Rinascimento questo mondo era united nations palcoscenico su cui effigy umane recitavano azioni significanti basate su testi di poeti. E' united nations'arte narrativa. (5)

I ritratti, le nature morte, i paesaggi eastward le raffigurazioni della vita quotidiana colgono momenti di piacere in united nations mondo pieno di piaceri: quelli dei legami familiari, delle cose possedute eastward della vita in citta', le chiede, la campagna. In queste immagini, … il Seicento ci appare come up una lunga domenica dopo i giorni turbolenti del secolo precedente. L'arte olandese offre appagamento alla vista e sembra sollevare meno domande di quanto non faccia 50'arte italiana. (8)

Giacche', come intendo dimostrare, le immagini nordiche non mascherano significati, ne' li nascondono dietro la superficie, ma mostrano piuttosto che il significato si trova per sua natura in cio' che fifty'occhio e' in grado di cogliere, per quanto ingannevole possa essere. (12)

O Tu che dai gli occhi e il potere
Da' occhi con questo potere:
Occhi che, se resi vigili,
Vedono tutto cio' che e' da vedere. (35)

… l'impressione che il mondo si depositi da se', con i suoi colori e la sua luce, sulla superficie pittorica; la mancanza di un preciso punto d'osservazione, come up se lo spettatore percepisse ogni cosa con occhio attento, ma senza lasciare traccia di se'. La Veduta di Delft di Vermeer ne e' un esempio perfetto. (45)

… Keplero non solo definisce l'immagine sulla retina una rappresentazione, ma sposta la sua attenzione dal mondo reale al mondo 'dipinto' sulla retina. Tutto questo implica un'estrema oggettivita' e la rinuncia a formulare giudizi di valore sul mondo cosi' rappresentato. (56)

50'thought della mente come luogo dove immagazzinare le immagini visive era ovviamente comune a quell'epoca. Ma solo nell'Europa del Nord gli artisti raffigurarono questo stato mentale. Comunque si voglia giudicarle, la mancanza di uno stile ideale o elevato e la tendenza a un approccio descrittivo anche nel caso di soggetti elevati, sono dovute a questo modo di intendere la rappresentazione. (sixty)

Or non vedi tu che 50'occhio abbraccia la bellezza di tutto il mondo? (65)

… cosi anche gli artisti olandesi hanno la passione per fifty'attenzione visiva. Infatti le loro opere sono rivolte agli stessi oggetti che attiravano fifty'attenzione di Beeckman: le nuvole gonfie di Ruisdael, alte sulla campagna, il guizzare di una candela o le pagine arricciate dei libri in pile che le nature morte di Leida fissano per il piacere dei nostri occhi; i cadaveri dipinti dai ritrattisti, per i quali la morte si presenta sotto forma di una lezione di anatomia. (148)

Nel descrivere che cosa vedono gli occhi degli animali o degli insetti, egli (Leeuwenhoek) richiama piu' volte l'attenzione sul fatto che il mondo e' conosciuto not in virtu' della sua visibilita', ma in virtu' dei particolari strumenti che lo rendono visibile. (156-vii)

Non facciamo nessuna scoperta se diciamo che l'arte olandese in genere condivide quel carattere nominativo due east rappresentativo che veniva attribuito anche al linguaggio. Abbiamo pero' united nations motivo ulteriore per fissare la nostra attenzione, come facevano appunto gli artisti olandesi, sulla descrizione della realta', piuttosto che indagare sui significati nascosti dietro la superficie. (170)

50'intento dei pittori olandesi era di fissare su una superficie il maggior numero di conoscenze due east di informazioni sul mondo visibile. Anch'essi, come i cartografi, affiancano immagini e parole, due east costruiscono opere composite, che not si lasciano cogliere da un singolo punto d'osservazione. La loro tela non e' una finestra secondo il modello italiano, ma assomiglia piuttosto a una carta geografica, a una superficie su cui e' esposta una costruzione del mondo. (198)

Con l'aiuto della terminologia cartografica possiamo dunque affermare che la pittura nordica prende la via della descrizione, e non quella della persuasione retorica abbracciata dall'arte italiana. (208)

Uno dei motivi conduttori della nostra ricerca due east' che l'arte olandese, essenzialmente descrittiva, taglia i ponti con queste basi letterarie. La sua insistenza sul sapere visivo east sulla maestria tecnica dell'artista denota una cultura dell'immagine autonoma rispetto alle fonti letterarie. (277)

Nel suo bel saggio su Vermeer, Lawrence Gowing commenta in questi termini la qualita' centrale della sua arte:
Vermeer si trova fuori dalle nostre convenzioni (quelle, due south'intende, relative all'arte italiana) perche' non puo' condividere la grande illusione che le sostiene: che lo stile abbia united nations potere reale sulla vita. Per quanto un artista ami il mondo e cerchi di afferrarlo, in realta' non potra' mai farlo suo. Per quanta audacia possa muovere il suo occhio insaziabile e dominatore, le vere forme della vita restano intatte. (367)

...more than

When information technology was published, The Art of Describing was instantly recognized equally a classic in art history, where it transformed our understanding of the human relationship between Italian Renaissance art and Dutch painting in the seventeenth century. Alpers' readings of the masters like Rembrandt and Vermeer volition change how y'all see their peachy works, merely she also devotes attention to artists and mapmakers who may be less familiar, similar Pieter Saenredam'south paintings of church interiors—revelatory. Just what make When information technology was published, The Art of Describing was instantly recognized as a classic in art history, where information technology transformed our understanding of the relationship betwixt Italian Renaissance art and Dutch painting in the seventeenth century. Alpers' readings of the masters like Rembrandt and Vermeer will change how you see their great works, but she also devotes attention to artists and mapmakers who may be less familiar, like Pieter Saenredam's paintings of church interiors—revelatory. Just what makes this book returning to nearly iv decades after its publication is the way that Alpers moves across art to show how technology and culture contributed to a certain Dutch way of seeing the globe. In a present characterized past crises of the visual—how best to perceive and invisible virus, changes in our climate?—her piece of work offers an exemplary way of thinking. ...more

Nov 20, 2020 Endymion Liu rated it really liked it

I don't know if in trying to argue for an alternative discriptive mode of viewing Dutch Art every bit to the discursive manner of interpreting Italian art, and by overemphasizing the attention to the surface and description, the author also reduces the art and simplifies artists' preoccupation and ambitions. It does deserve merit for proposing a different approach to look at dutch visual art, independent of the mainstream scholarly apparatus of studying italian narrative art and information technology's legacies.
I don't know if in trying to argue for an alternative discriptive mode of viewing Dutch Art every bit to the discursive mode of interpreting Italian art, and past overemphasizing the attending to the surface and description, the author also reduces the art and simplifies artists' preoccupation and ambitions. It does deserve merit for proposing a different arroyo to await at dutch visual art, independent of the mainstream scholarly appliance of studying italian narrative art and it'southward legacies.
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Just finished, already on my re-read list. Provides intelligent context for viewing, enjoying and comprehending Dutch art of the 17th century.

Jan 19, 2021 Volition Schumer rated information technology it was amazing

This is THE text on Dutch Golden Age art. Required reading. No ifs and buts. Start here.

Feb 21, 2018 Jay rated it information technology was astonishing

dense but endlessly fascinating. enriched my enjoyment and understanding of my favorite paintings, excited to read more than.

May fourteen, 2012 Rebecca rated it liked information technology

I love Dutch genre painting and this classic on the subject had some really interesting ideas. However I felt at that place was rather an overwhelming focus on Vermeer, and I'm guessing this was a translation or not in her first language? Because a few sentences didn't really read quite right... I love Dutch genre painting and this classic on the subject had some really interesting ideas. However I felt there was rather an overwhelming focus on Vermeer, and I'one thousand guessing this was a translation or not in her first language? Because a few sentences didn't really read quite right... ...more

To fully appreciate this book one needs to read Eddy De Jongh's review. To fully appreciate this book 1 needs to read Eddy De Jongh's review. ...more than

Scholar of Dutch bizarre fine art; professor of History of Art, UC Berkeley,1962-1994; exponent of the "new art history."

Born Sventlana Leontief, she graduated from Radcliffe College with a B.A. in 1957. She married the following year, assuming her husband'due south surname of Alpers. She continued graduate work in fine art history at Harvard University publishin an article on Vasari's verbal descriptions of art (

Scholar of Dutch baroque fine art; professor of History of Art, UC Berkeley,1962-1994; exponent of the "new art history."

Born Sventlana Leontief, she graduated from Radcliffe College with a B.A. in 1957. She married the following twelvemonth, assuming her husband's surname of Alpers. She connected graduate work in art history at Harvard Academy publishin an article on Vasari'due south verbal descriptions of art (ekphraseis) in 1960 in the Journal of the Warburg and Coutauld Institutes, which announced her innovative approach to fine art history. Alpers accepted a instruction position equally an associate professor at the University of California, Berkeley, in 1962 while working on her dissertation. She graduated from Harvard in 1965, writing her thesis under Seymour Slive on the Peter Paul Rubens bicycle Torre de la Parada. Her work in Rubens' athenaeum brought her to the attending of Roger d'Hulst, who suggested she plough her dissertation into a volume for the catalogue raissoné on Rubens. She rose to the rank of Professor at Berkeley. In 1971 she was appointed to the Board of Directors of the Higher Fine art Acquaintance (remained until 1976). That aforementioned year here volume for the Rubens catalogue raissoné, The Corpus Rubenianum Ludwig Burchard, number ix, was published.

In 1977 an important methodological commodity past Alpers appeared in Daedalus examining progressive scholarship in art history in contrast with earlier scholarship. During the academic year 1979-80 she was a member at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton. In 1983, Alpers co-founded the progressive interdisciplinary periodical Representations, publishing the article, "Interpretation without Representation, or, The Viewing of Las Meninas," in the start consequence. That year, too, she published the beginning of her ground-breaking works in art history, The Fine art of Describing: Dutch Art in the Seventeenth Century. The book'southward central thesis focused on the the immediacy and simplicity of Dutch painting and the Dutch preoccupation with the description of interiors and domestic scenes, contrasting it with narrative Italian painting. Iconographical approaches to baroque art, she wrote, such as those good by Erwin Panofsky and others, were insufficient to understand Dutch imagery. Her book likewise criticized mainstream Dutch scholarship and its reliance on emblems and emblemata books explain Netherlandish withal life paining. The Fine art of Describing was well received, reviewers hailing Alper's mastery of topics every bit various as eyes and perspective theory. Critics, still, accused her of selective use of evidence, drawing only from paintings and texts which supported her theories.

In 1988, during the era of shocking reattributions of many works of Rembrandt by the Rembrandt Enquiry Project, Alpers published a monograph on the artist, Rembrandt's Enterprise: The Studio and the Market The volume examined Rembrandt's market strategies and his modeling his art to appeal to a Dutch consumer base of operations. Her use of economic theory and a concerted abstention of visual criteria again upset traditionalists in the art globe.

Alpers co-wrote a book with beau Berkeley art historian Michael Baxandall in 1994, Tiepolo and the Pictorial Intelligence. She was named Professor Emerita from Berkeley in 1994. The post-obit year she returned to the art of the low countries with her Making of Rubens. The volume looked at Rubens' politics, his later critical reception in France, and theorized specific pregnant in the recurring Silenus figures of his later work.

Reaction to Alpers was summed up past Walter Liedtke. In an article on American historians of Dutch fine art, he characterized her work as containing "whole exclusions" of art that did non fit her thesis--such equally the Utrecht school--a "typical exercise in American taste dressed up (with some French motifs) as a new assay of Dutch Art." However, her piece of work Rembrandt's Enterprise was included among the 169 major writings of art history in the 2010 Hauptwerke der Kunstgeschicht

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