Art books I’m reading

From Flan­ders to Flo­rence: The Impact of Nether­lan­dish Paint­ing, 1400–1500 This is a book on the influ­ence of the Nether­lan­dish “Ars Nova” move­ment on Flo­ren­tine art. In the early 15^th cen­tury, a new style of art, using new com­po­si­tional devices, new themes, new vir­tu­oso ren­der­ing meth­ods, and a new use of an old medium (oil paint) began to dom­i­nate paint­ing in the Nether­lands. Within a decade or so, artists such as Jan van Eyck and Rogier van der Wey­den came to be well-known and highly regarded in Italy, includ­ing the city of Flo­rence, which was at that time a great cen­ter of Renais­sance paint­ing. Locally-produced paint­ings in the Nether­lan­dish style soon became pop­u­lar and, over the next decades, many painters began to excel at this new style of work. This is a big book, full of won­der­ful illus­tra­tions, that exam­ines this phe­nom­e­non in great detail.

Art in the Mak­ing: Rem­brandt I don’t know enough about 17^th cen­tury paint­ing, so I blew a cou­ple of Bor­ders gift cards left over from Christ­mas on this book. It’s a detailed tech­ni­cal analy­sis of paint­ings by Rem­brandt (and fol­low­ers) in the National Gallery in Lon­don. I just got it, but it seems quite good so far. The folks at the National Gallery seem to really know their stuff; I’ve very much enjoyed two of their other books in the “Art in the Mak­ing” series. The other major book on the sub­ject (in Eng­lish) is Rem­brandt: The Painter at Work, which I have not read.