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 well as from history and travel accounts, in writing has magnum opus, Introduction to the Academy of Painting; or the Visible World (1678) a cross-section of general seventeenth-century views on art in Holland. Questioning the motives of artists represented by van Hoogstraten’s theory, as well as the contested issues behind Dutch realism and its hidden symbolism, author Thijs Weststeijn provides an ambitious overview of seventeenth-century painting through the eyes of contemporary Dutch artists from the age.
Author(s): Thijs Weststeijn
Year: 2009
Language: English
Pages: 512
Table of Contents......Page 7
Preface and Acknowledgements......Page 10
Introduction......Page 13
Ch I: Samuel van Hoogstraten in the Republic of Letters......Page 26
Ch II:The Visible World......Page 84
Ch III:Pictorial Imitation......Page 124
Ch IV:The Depiction of the Passions......Page 172
Ch V:The Eloquence of Colour......Page 220
Ch VI:Painting as a Mirror of Nature......Page 270
Excursus: Painting as a ‘Sister of Philosophy’......Page 330
Conclusion......Page 354
Bibliographical abbreviations......Page 361
Notes......Page 362
Bibliography......Page 444
Studies......Page 448
Index of subjects......Page 464
Index of names......Page 469
