Rubens, Rembrandt, and drawing in the Golden Age

Abstract

An extraordinary history of Netherlandish drawing, focused on the training and skill of artists during the long 17th century. With a lively narrative thread and thematic chapters, this book offers an exceptional introduction to Dutch and Flemish drawing during the long 17th century. Victoria Sancho Lobis discusses the many roles of drawing in artistic training, its function in the production of works in other media, and its emergence as a medium in its own right. Beautifully illustrated with some 120 drawings by artists including Rembrandt van Rijn, Peter Paul Rubens, Hendrick Goltzius, Gerrit von Honthorst, and Jacob De Gheyn, this book surveys current methodologies of studying these works and features a brief history of Dutch papermaking and watermarks as well as a glossary. Paying careful attention to materials and techniques, and informed by recent conservation treatments, Lobis explains how to look at these drawings as records of experimentation and skill, true windows into the artist's mind. ----- Exhibition: The Art Institute of Chicago, USA (28.09.2019-05.01.2020).

Contents

Foreword / James Rondeau -- Acknowledgments -- Note to the reader -- Glossary -- From experiment to spectacle -- Under the master's watchful eye -- The imperative of Italy -- The live model -- From the imagination -- In service of her sister arts -- The independent landscape -- The afterlife of drawings -- Catalogue of drawings / compiled by Laurel Garber, Meg Hausberg, Victoria Sancho Lobis, and Emily Vokt Ziemba -- Paper in the Netherlands / Antoinette Owen -- Watermarks / Antoinette Owen -- Works cited -- Index.