Aug 2023: Oud Holland publishes six new reviews

New Oud Holland Book and Exhibition Reviews

30 August 2023

For the summer 2023 edition of Oud Holland Reviews, six reviewers analyse six publications, one of which is an exhibition catalogue.

Walter Melion reviews Images and indulgences in early Netherlandish painting, and highlights how study of the practice of indulgence to which these paintings were connected, helps us to understand the full meaning of such works. Kathryn M. Rudy critically assesses the hefty overview tome, The agency of art objects in Northern Europe 1380–1520, explaining where it is and isn't successful in its aims. Maximilian Nalbach reviews “Pictura” in den Niederlanden. Studien zur Personifikation der Malerei. Ihre Genese und Entwicklung vom 16. bis zur Mitte des 17. Jahrhunderts, examining the methodology behind the study, and how the publication expands related current research. Liya Okroshidze provides a welcomed overview of recent research into Northern European portraiture in the catalogue Remember me: Renaissance portraits, which was published to accompany an exhibition of the same name held at the Rijksmuseum, from 30 September 2021-16 January 2022. Ingrid Vermeulen's review of Jacob Campo Weyerman and his collection of artists’ biographies: An art critic at work, places that publication into the long tradition of such biographical compendiums produced in France, England and the Dutch Republic – while also interpreting where the volume's author, has unearthed new insights into Weyerman's writings. Lastly, John Bezold reviews Frans Hals in America: Collectors, scholars and connoisseurs – the first publication to have solely focused on the collecting of paintings by Frans Hals within America, since those of Wilhelm Valentiner, when considered from an object-based research methodology. 

Oud Holland wishes our readers an enjoyable and relaxing end of the summer season.