Elucidating the steps that led to a finished work of art has been one of Molly Faries’ principal concerns in nearly forty years of research and teaching. A pioneer in infrared reflectography, she has demonstrated like no other scholar the importance of technical studies to art history, in the way that they provide insight into an artist’s technique and development, into collaboration within a workshop, and into master-pupil relationships. Molly Faries has taught generations of students and colleagues to view paintings not as static objects but as the results of successive choices.
The volume’s title, Invention: Northern Renaissance Studies in Honor of Molly Faries, evokes Molly’s passion for understanding an artist’s creative process. The term “invention” is here understood in the widest possible sense: How did a work of art come into being? How did an artist react to new stimuli or adapt to a new culture? Was innovation valued above adherence to a local tradition? To what degree could artists shape their patrons’ taste? How did artists transform their own inventions over time and adopt those of others? Was there a concept of invention specific to the Northern Renaissance and how did it differ from ours?
The authors who tackle these and other questions include university professors, curators, conservators, and conservation scientists, all recognized specialists in northern European art of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. The artists they discuss are among the greatest painters, manuscript illuminators, printmakers, and sculptors: Johan Maelwael, the Limbourg brothers, Jan van Eyck, Rogier van der Weyden, Hans Memling, Lieven van Lathem, Juan de Flandes, Jean Hey, Albrecht Dürer, Hieronymus Bosch, Master H.L., Jacques Du Broeucq, and Jan Brueghel the Elder.
This book, one of the few devoted specifically to the concept of invention in Northern Renaissance art, is richly illustrated with 32 color plates and 179 black-and-white reproductions; it includes an index.
Author(s): Julien Chapuis
Series: Me Fecit, 5
Publisher: Brepols
Year: 2008
Language: English
Pages: 280
City: Turnhout
Front matter (“Contents”, “Molly Faries: Scholar and Mentor”, ““Laudatio” Molly Faries”, “Chronological Bibliography of Molly Faries”), p. i
Free Access
Color Plates, p. xvii
https://doi.org/10.1484/M.MEF-EB.3.818
Posing Intentions in Renaissance Painting, p. 2
Alfred Acres
https://doi.org/10.1484/M.MEF-EB.3.819
Johan Maelwael and the Beginnings of Netherlandish Canvas Painting, p. 20
Victor M. Schmidt
https://doi.org/10.1484/M.MEF-EB.3.820
Picturing the Narrative: Compositional Intelligence in the “Belles Heures”, p. 30
Timothy B. Husband
https://doi.org/10.1484/M.MEF-EB.3.821
Intention and Invention in Jan van Eyck’s “Saint Barbara”, p. 50
Carol J. Purtle
https://doi.org/10.1484/M.MEF-EB.3.822
The Creative Process in Rogier van der Weyden’s Portraits, p. 64
Catherine A. Metzger, Michael Palmer
https://doi.org/10.1484/M.MEF-EB.3.823
Hans Memling and Rogier van der Weyden, p. 86
Till-Holger Borchert
https://doi.org/10.1484/M.MEF-EB.3.824
Van Lathem’s Costumes, p. 94
Anne H. van Buren
https://doi.org/10.1484/M.MEF-EB.3.825
Juan de Flandes, Chameleon Painter, p. 104
Maryan W. Ainsworth
https://doi.org/10.1484/M.MEF-EB.3.826
The Painter’s Role in the Conception of Sculpture: Jean Hey at Chantelle, p. 124
Philippe Lorentz
https://doi.org/10.1484/M.MEF-EB.3.827
Observations on Underdrawings in Paintings by the Master of Moulins, p. 136
Martha Wolff
https://doi.org/10.1484/M.MEF-EB.3.828
Puzzles On and Under the Surface: Changed Subjectivity in the Imhoff Epitaph, p. 152
Corine Schleif, Volker Schier
https://doi.org/10.1484/M.MEF-EB.3.829
Invented in Hell: Bosch’s Tree-Man, p. 162
Walter S. Gibson
https://doi.org/10.1484/M.MEF-EB.3.830
Master H.L. and the Challenge of Invention in Different Media, p. 174
Jeffrey Chipps Smith
https://doi.org/10.1484/M.MEF-EB.3.831
Jacques Du Broeucq and Northern Perspectives on the Antique Mode, p. 190
Ethan Matt Kavaler
https://doi.org/10.1484/M.MEF-EB.3.832
Translating Dürer into Dutch, p. 208
Larry Silver
https://doi.org/10.1484/M.MEF-EB.3.833
Back matter (“Index”, “Illustration Credits”), p. 225
