The Paintings of Hendrick ter Brugghen (1588-1629), is the first major study of this important early seventeenth-century master since Benedict Nicolson's classic monograph of 1958. It comprises two chapters that explore ter Brugghen's development as an artist and the reception of his work among contemporaries, followed by a truly monumental catalogue raisonné of ter Brugghen's 89 authentic paintings, 54 pictures associated with the artist and/or his workshop, 141 rejected works, 42 lost works, and lastly, 10 drawings that have been linked to ter Brugghen directly or related to his paintings. Already celebrated during his lifetime, and avidly collected by elite cognescenti in the Dutch Republic and abroad, ter Brugghen executed a dazzling variety of paintings, ranging from Bible subjects and saints, to fascinating mythological images, as well as scenes of daily life, including musicians. Although his knowledge of paintings by Caravaggio that he had seen during his early sojourn in Rome always remained acute, these experiences were continually tempered by his awareness of older Northern European artistic traditions and conventions, with the result that ter Brugghen created pictures whose subject matter and style are fascinating, and at times, unique. Until his untimely death in August of 2003, Leonard J. Slatkes was Distinguished Professor of Art History at Queens College of the City University of New York, NY. He was an internationally renowned expert on the art of the Dutch Caravaggisti, to whom he had devoted many essays, books, and exhibition catalogues. Slatkes had begun conducting research on ter Brugghen's paintings in the 1960's, with the expectation of eventually publishing a new monograph on the artist. Wayne Franits, a former student of Slatkes's, is currently Professor of Fine Arts at Syracuse University, Syracuse, NY. He has authored numerous publications on seventeenth-century Dutch and Flemish art.

The first in-depth study of the Utrecht artist to address questions beyond connoisseurship and attribution, this book makes a significant contribution to Ter Brugghen and Northern Caravaggist studies. Focusing on the Dutch master's simultaneous use of Northern archaisms with Caravaggio's motifs and style, Natasha Seaman nuances our understanding of Ter Brugghen's appropriations from the Italian painter. Her analysis centers on four paintings, all depicting New Testament subjects. They include Ter Brugghen's largest and first known signed work (Crowning with Thorns), his most archaizing (the Crucifixion), and the two paintings most directly related to the works of Caravaggio (the Doubting Thomas and the Calling of Matthew). By examining the ways in which Ter Brugghen's paintings deliberately diverge from Caravaggio's, Seaman sheds new light on the Utrecht artist and his work. For example, she demonstrates that where Caravaggio's paintings are boldly illusionistic and mimetic, thus de-emphasizing their materiality, Ter Brugghen's works examined here create the opposite effect, connecting their content to their made form. This study not only illuminates the complex meanings of the paintings addressed here, but also offers insights into the image debates and the status of devotional art in Italy and Utrecht in the seventeenth century by examining one artist's response to them.

Presents a catalog that surveys the Dutch paintings found in the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

This volume traces how theologies and the arts of the Baroque period stressed the "pathos" of Christ's death on the cross as the means of salvation, and invited believers to an emotional response that binds them to Christ's saving act.

Following Caravaggio's death in 1610, the French artist Valentin de Boulogne (1591-1632) emerged as one of the great champions of naturalistic painting. The eminent art historian Roberto Longhi honored him as "the most energetic and passionate of Caravaggio's naturalist followers." In Rome, Valentin—who loved the tavern as much as the painter's pallette—fell in with a rowdy confederation of artists but eventually received commissions from some of the city's most prominent patrons. It was in this artistically rich but violent metropolis that Valentin created such masterworks as a major altarpiece in Saint Peter's Basilica and superb renderings of biblical and secular subjects—until his tragic death at the age of forty-one cut short his ascendant career. With discussions of nearly fifty works, representing practically all of his painted oeuvre, Valentin de Boulogne: Beyond Caravaggio explores both the the artist's superlative depictions of daily life and the tumultuous context in which they were produced. Essays by a team of international scholars consider his key attributions to European painting, his devotion to everyday objects and models from life, his technique of staging pictures with the immediacy of unfolding drama, and his place in the pantheon of French artists. An extensive chronology surveys the rare extant documents that chronicle his biography, while individual entries help situate his works in the contexts of his times. Rich with incident and insight, and beautifully illustrated in Valentin's complex, suggestive paintings, Valentin de Boulogne: Beyond Caravaggio reveals a seminal artist, a practitioner of realism in the seventeenth century who prefigured the naturalistic modernism of Gustave Courbet and Edouard Manet two centuries later.

"The exhibition is organized by the Centraal Museum Utrecht; the National Gallery of Art, Washington; the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; and the Sarah Campbell Blaffer Foundation."--Title page verso.

A beautiful volume that brings to light the forgotten Le Nain brothers, a trio of 17th-century French master painters who specialized in portraiture, religious subjects, and scenes of everyday peasant life In France in the 17th century, the brothers Antoine (c. 1598-1648), Louis (c. 1600/1605-1648), and Mathieu (1607-1677) Le Nain painted images of everyday life for which they became posthumously famous. They are celebrated for their depictions of middle-class leisure activities, and particularly for their representations of peasant families, who gaze out at the viewer. The uncompromising naturalism of these compositions, along with their oddly suspended action, imparts a sense of dignity to their subjects. Featuring more than sixty paintings highlighting the artists' full range of production, including altarpieces, private devotional paintings, portraits, and the poignant images of peasants for which the brothers are best known, this generously illustrated volume presents new research concerning the authorship, dating, and meaning of the works by well-known scholars in the field. Also groundbreaking are the results of a technical study of the paintings, which constitutes a major contribution to the scholarship on the Le Nain brothers.