Description
Book SynopsisWeyerman’s collection of artists’ biographies (1729) is exceptional for three reasons. Firstly, he includes a great number of painters not mentioned elsewhere. Secondly, he does not limit his selection to good artists only; he also discusses failed painters and their abortive careers. Thirdly, he writes as an art critic who does not hesitate to pass judgments, sometimes severe, on his chosen subjects. In the process, Weyerman provides much information on the social and economic circumstances of art production. He found that a bohemian lifestyle was pernicious to a painter’s career, and argued that artists should live and think as merchants. In addition to analyzing Weyerman’s art critical terminology and his ideas on art theory, De Vries includes translations of two full chapters along with the original Dutch.
Trade Review“Jacob Campo Weyerman and his Collection of Artists' Biographies is a great book. Not cheap, but the first 141 pages, Part One, will serve as a new benchmark in Weyerman Studies.” Peter Altena, in JCW 43.2 (Mededelingen van de Stichting Jacob Campo Weyerman) "The fact remains that, whatever [Weyerman's] motivations, he demonstrated (and de Vries amply acknowledges it) that he had an art critic training, that he mastered a technical vocabulary that deserves to be studied precisely because it is specific to a reality and an era and, in short, that he was a man fully immersed in his time. Probably these findings (and the many references to the situation of the art market in the Netherlands [...] would today satisfy more those who deal with social history of art, rather than history of art in the strict sense; however, they allow us to reconsider the importance of a work that, in Schlosser's time, seemed inevitably destined for oblivion and ignominy." Giovanni Mazzaferro, in: Letteratura artistica: Cross-cultural Studies in Art History Sources, August 2020
Table of ContentsPreface List of Illustrations Introduction 1 Contents of the Levens-Beschryvingen 2 Weyerman’s Opinions 1 Painted and Written Genre Scenes 1 Urban Genre 2 Low Life Genre 3 Italianate Scenes 4 Large-Scale Genre Paintings 5 Fine Painting 2 Failed Artists 1 Pretentions of Nobility 2 Social Skills 3 Marriage 4 Painterly Studios 5 Intemperance 6 Mental Problems 7 Art Dealers and Their Victims 8 Copying 9 Antwerp’s Vrijdagsmarkt 10 Street Vendors and Itinerant Painters 3 Portraiture 1 London 2 The ‘Byway’ of Art 3 The Sitter’s Identity 4 Good Manners, Flattery and Beauty 5 The Netherlands 6 Other Group Portraits 4 Art in the Public Space 1 Altarpieces 2 Stained Glass Windows 3 Wall Tapestries 4 Princely Commissions 5 Government Commissions 6 Municipal Commissions 7 Festive Entries 8 Private Commissions 5 Art Criticism 1 Choice of Subject Matter 2 Composition 3 Human Figures 4 Pictorial Space 5 Reddering 6 Colouring 7 Handling of the Brush 8 Welstand 6 Pliny, Durand and Weyerman 1 Weyerman’s Ideas in Perspective 2 Beauty 3 Grace 4 Art and Nature 5 The Purpose of Art 6 Classification 7 Conclusion Epilogue Appendix 1: Biography of Willem de Fouchier Appendix 2: Disquisition on the Art of the Ancients Bibliography Index
