Samuel van Hoogstraten's Introduction to the Academy of Painting; or, The Visible World
Exploring the Art and Knowledge of the Seventeenth Century
Jaap Jacobs author Samuel Van Hoogstraten author Celeste Brusati author
Format:Paperback
Publisher:Getty Trust Publications
Published:12th Jan '21
Should be back in stock very soon
This book offers a comprehensive view of seventeenth-century painting practices, education, and cultural discussions, highlighting the unique insights of Samuel van Hoogstraten.
In Samuel van Hoogstraten's Introduction to the Academy of Painting; or, The Visible World, readers are transported to the vibrant artistic landscape of the seventeenth-century Netherlands. This remarkable work offers a detailed account of painting practices, education, and discourse during a time of significant cultural and intellectual evolution. The author, Samuel van Hoogstraten, provides a unique perspective as a Dutch artist, making this book an essential resource for understanding the era's artistic milieu.
The text serves as the only comprehensive work on painting authored by a Dutch artist in the later seventeenth century. It includes firsthand accounts from Rembrandt's studio, insights into contemporary discussions around perspective and optics, as well as explorations of experimental philosophy and the economics of art. Van Hoogstraten's magnum opus, now available in English for the first time, masterfully intertwines textual sources with his own diverse experiences in the art world.
By presenting innovative interpretations of traditional subjects, the author argues for the universal significance of painting, asserting it as foundational to all liberal arts. His exploration of the knowledge painters possess about nature and art resonates with modern ideas of expertise, reflecting the complex relationship between theory and practice. Overall, Samuel van Hoogstraten's Introduction to the Academy of Painting; or, The Visible World stands as a valuable document of the interconnected histories of art and knowledge during the seventeenth century.
“Superbly edited and translated, Introduction to the Academy of Painting reveals anew the variety and scope of Samuel van Hoogstraten’s great treatise on Dutch art, showing how it harnesses multiple genres of text to the task of affirming the epistemic authority of painting as an instrument of perception, judgment, and thought. Brusati and Jacobs allow us to see that Van Hoogstraten, even while deeply responsive to the circumstances his time and place, was yet sui generis: eschewing mere erudition, he placed a premium on artisanal expertise, gave voice to the inextricable connection between verisimilar description and optical deception, and argued that pictorial excellence results above all from the mutual attunement of the painter’s discriminating mind, attentive eye, and practiced hand.”;—Walter S. Melion, Asa Griggs Candler Professor of Art History, Emory University; Foreign Member, KNAW, Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences;;“This meticulous new translation of Samuel van Hoogstraten enables modern readers to encounter, finally and fully, the richly diverse content of that cosmopolitan, learned, and sophisticated practicing artist, as he attempts to provide both theory and practice for visual art as the worthy sister of the nine muses. Celeste Brusati's enlightening introductory commentary is another important contribution to art history's literature from the Dutch Golden Age. As with her monograph on Van Hoogstraten, Artifice and Illusion (1995), Brusati provides a springboard into Van Hoogstraten's dialogue about art, poised between Academy and Visible World.”—Larry Silver, University of Pennsylvania, Farquhar Professor of Art History, emeritus, and co-editor of Canons and Values (2019)
ISBN: 9781606066676
Dimensions: 254mm x 180mm x 26mm
Weight: 1246g
424 pages