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The Visible World: Samuel van Hoogstraten's Art Theory and the Legitimation of Painting in the Dutch Golden Age (Amsterdam Studies in the Dutch Golden Age) PDF

477 Pages·2009·35.33 MB·English
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THIJS WESTSTEIJN V W The isible orld Samuel van Hoogstraten’s Art Theory and the Legitimation of Painting in the Dutch Golden Age Amsterdam University Press 1 2 3 The Visible World 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 Visible world HR kopy.indd 1 09-10-2008 17:02:49 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 Visible world HR kopy.indd 2 09-10-2008 17:02:49 1 The Visible World 2 3 4 5 6 7 samuel van hoogstraten’s art theory 8 9 and the legitimation of painting 10 11 in the Dutch golden age 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 Thijs Weststeijn 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 translated by 28 Beverley Jackson and Lynne Richards 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 amsterdam university press 43 44 45 46 Visible world HR kopy.indd 3 09-10-2008 17:02:49 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 The publication of this book has been made possible by: The Netherlands Organisation for 21 Scientific Research (NWO); the Prince Bernhard Fund; Stichting Charema, Fonds voor 22 Geschiedenis en Kunst; Dr Hendrik Muller’s Vaderlandsch Fonds; J.E. Jurriaanse Stichting; 23 M.A.O.C. Gravin van Bylandt Stichting; Historians of Netherlandish Art. 24 25 26 27 Cover design: Kok Korpershoek, Amsterdam 28 Cover illustration: Samuel van Hoogstraten, Perspective with a Woman Reading a Letter (Formerly 29 Identified as Margaret Cavendish), canvas, 242 x 179 cm, Royal Picture Gallery Mauritshuis, The 30 Hague. 31 32 Lay-out: ProGrafici, Goes 33 34 ISBN 978 90 8964 027 7 35 E-ISBN 978 90 4850 789 4 36 NUR 642 37 38 © Thijs Weststeijn / Amsterdam University Press, 2008 39 40 All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this 41 book may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any 42 form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise) without 43 the written permission of both the copyright owner and the author of the book. 44 45 46 Visible world HR kopy.indd 4 09-10-2008 17:02:49 [Ik] derf vaststellen, dat een oprecht oeffenaer der Schilderkonst, die haer alleen om haer zelfs wil, en 1 om haeren deugtsaemen aert navolgt, waerlijk t’onrecht zoude versmaet worden. Alle wijsgeerigen 2 zijn tot geen staeten of burgerbestieringen beroepen, en niettemin zijnze in ’t versmaeden der werelt- 3 sche hoogheden by Plutarchus ... hoog genoeg gepreezen, schoonze aen de werelt geen grooter sieraet, 4 noch aen haer zelven meerder gerustheit en vernoegen, als onze Schilders in ’t oeffenen dezer beval- 5 lijke wijsgeerte, hebben toegebracht. 6 Samuel van Hoogstraten, 7 Inleyding tot de Hooge Schoole der Schilderkonst 8 9 Jene trefflichen Niederländer, welche solche rein objektive Anschauung auf die unbedeutendsten 10 Gegenstände richteten und ein dauerndes Denkmal ihrer Objektivität und Geistesruhe im Stilleben 11 hinstellten, welches der ästhetische Beschauer nicht ohne Rührung betrachtet, da es ihm den ruhigen, 12 stillen, willensfreien Gemüthzustand des Künstlers vergegenwärtigt, der nöthig war, um so unbedeu- 13 tende Dinge so objektiv anzuschauen, so aufmerksam zu betrachten und diese Anschauung so besonnen 14 zu wiederholen ... Im selben Geiste haben oft Landschaftsmaler ... höchst unbedeutende landschaftliche 15 Gegenstände gemalt, und dadurch die selbe Wirkung noch erfreulicher hervorgebracht. 16 Arthur Schopenhauer, 17 Die Welt als Wille und Vorstellung I 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 To Marieke 43 44 45 46 Visible world HR kopy.indd 5 09-10-2008 17:02:49 1 2 3 4 Table of Contents 5 6 7 8 9 preface and acknowledgements 9 10 11 introduction 11 12 13 i. samuel van hoogstraten in the republic of 14 letters 25 15 A learned artist: Van Hoogstraten as painter and poet 25 16 A courtiers’ handbook, novels and drama 34 17 ‘Visible’ and ‘Invisible’ Worlds 38 18 Elevating the status of painting 41 19 ‘The whole of Painting and all that pertains to it’ 48 20 Painting and rhetoric: rules of art and rules of conduct 65 21 22 ii. the visible world 83 23 The ‘soul of art’: examining the ‘properties’ of things 90 24 The painter’s rewards: painting and philosophy 91 25 Painting as ‘universal knowledge’ 95 26 The meaning of the depiction of the visible world 108 27 The outlook of Stoicism 113 28 The Book of Nature and the eloquence of painting 115 29 30 iii. pictorial imitation 123 31 An ideology of imitation 124 32 Imitation and self-knowledge 129 33 The imitation of examples and the imitation of nature 130 34 Imitating the inimitable 132 35 Painting as virtual reality 132 36 ‘As if he were another bystander’: the response theory of ekphrasis 137 37 ‘A gratifying indulgence in disparate parities’ 162 38 Emulation and the history of art 164 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 6 46 Visible world HR kopy.indd 6 09-10-2008 17:02:49 iv. the depiction of the passions 171 1 The soul’s three parts 174 2 Body and mind, actions and passions 175 3 Passionate persuasion: beweeglijkheid and enargeia 182 4 Ethos and pathos 191 5 The depiction of the passions and pictorial realism 200 6 The ideal painter of passions: Rembrandt as pathopoios 206 7 8 v. the eloquence of colour 219 9 Paint as flesh 220 10 The cosmetics of colour 223 11 ‘Rough’ versus ‘fine’ brushwork 229 12 The colours of the Dutch countryside 241 13 A painterly art 252 14 The mute rhetoric of the visible world 260 15 16 vi. painting as a mirror of nature 269 17 Paintings as mirrors 271 18 Deceiving the eye 273 19 ‘Making things appear to be that are not’: painting as metaphor 281 20 Illusion and vanity 285 21 ‘Through a glass, darkly’: visible and invisible worlds 295 22 Van Hoogstraten’s perspective box: 23 the bifocal gaze as memento mori 304 24 The painter and the visible world: 25 self-portraits by Van Hoogstraten and Rembrandt 312 26 27 excursus: painting as a ‘sister of philosophy’ 329 28 The visible and the invisible 330 29 From qualities to particles: theories about optics 331 30 Van Hoogstraten and Van Blijenberg discuss body and soul 338 31 The philosophical status of the visible world 343 32 33 conclusion 353 34 35 notes 361 36 bibliography 443 37 indices 463 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 table of contents 7 46 Visible world HR kopy.indd 7 09-10-2008 17:02:49 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 Visible world HR kopy.indd 8 09-10-2008 17:02:49 1 2 3 Preface and Acknowledgements 4 5 6 7 8 ‘Painting, sir, I have heard say, is a mystery’, says the pimp Pompey in Shakespeare’s Measure for 9 Measure. Implicitly he elucidates this mystery with a reference to his whores, who use the deceit 10 of painting to enhance their looks. I never sought such irony in Samuel van Hoogstraten. My 11 interest in his treatise was sparked by a fundamental question, which I first encountered during 12 my studies at a small art college in Amsterdam: ‘Why do artists depict the visible world?’ Van 13 Hoogstraten’s book of painting seemed to reveal what he and his colleagues were about in their 14 apparently unpretentious depictions of cloudy skies, interiors and the play of the light. 15 Soon I found that neither my question nor my expectations of Van Hoogstraten’s trea- 16 tise accorded with the seventeenth-century situation. Fortunately I was supported in the re- 17 ordering of my ideas by Eric Jan Sluijter, the supervisor of the dissertation at the University 18 of Amsterdam which was the basis for this book. His expertise and the great confidence with 19 which he guided the research saved me from many a false step. He also unfailingly shared my 20 conviction that Van Hoogstraten has something particular to say about the extraordinary blos- 21 soming and the specific nature of Dutch art in the seventeenth century. 22 This book had existed as an idea, however, for rather longer: Ernst van de Wetering’s 23 attachment to Van Hoogstraten as a rare conduit to the thoughts of important Dutch masters 24 was a source of inspiration. I am also indebted in this regard to Maarten van Nierop, whose 25 encouragement sustained me as I wrote. His ideas about traditions and structures in history 26 provided a framework for my treatment of works of art and figures from the past. 27 The English translation was undertaken with great skill by Beverley Jackson and Lynne 28 Richards, whose lives I often made difficult with my specific wishes – not least my insistence 29 on retaining the word ‘legitimation’, even in the title. Their work was made possible by the 30 Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research, which also funded my appointment and 31 enabled me to proclaim the importance of Van Hoogstraten’s ideas from Amsterdam to Rome 32 and from Tokyo to Rio de Janeiro. 33 To some extent I have been able to follow in the footsteps of Van Hoogstraten’s peri- 34 patetic career, and my gratitude goes to the Dutch University Institute for Art History in 35 Florence, where Gert-Jan van der Sman and Bert Meijer made me welcome, and the Royal 36 Netherlands Institute in Rome. I should also like to thank the people at the library of the Art 37 History Institute of the University of Amsterdam, the Rijksmuseum, the Bibliotheca Hertz- 38 iana, the Deutsches Kunsthistorisches Institut, the Warburg Library and the British Library. 39 40 A great many of the staff of the Amsterdam University Press were involved in some way in 41 the book: I was able to call for assistance on Paulien Retèl and Christine Waslander, as well as 42 Marleen Souverein, Chantal Nicolaes and Ilona van Tuinen. My thanks also go the members 43 of the editorial board who included the book in the Dutch Golden Age series. 44 45 9 46 Visible world HR kopy.indd 9 09-10-2008 17:02:49

Description:
The Visible World explores the writings of Dutch painter and poet Samuel van Hoogstraten (1627–78)—one of Rembrandt’s pupils—and clarifies his use of painterly themes and theory from the Dutch Golden Age. Van Hoogstraten drew on a variety of literary, philosophical, and artistic sources, as
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