Moving Pictures and Renaissance Art History
Patricia Emison
- Title
- Picturing Art History
- Subtitle
- The Rise of the Illustrated History of Art in the Eighteenth Century
- Author
- Ingrid Vermeulen
- Price
- € 67,95 excl. VAT
- ISBN
- 9789089640314
- Format
- Paperback
- Number of pages
- 360
- Language
- English
- Publication date
- 31 - 08 - 2010
- Dimensions
- 15.6 x 23.4 cm
- Discipline
- History, Art History, and Archaeology
Reviews and Features
‘Vermeulen’s comments far exceed everything published so far (...).’
Christian Rümelin, editor of Print Quarterly|Picturing Art History by Ingrid R. Vermeulen ‘is a well-written work with an original and topical theme, and is based on thorough scholarly research.’
Debora J. Meijers, Associate Professor of Art History of the Modern Period, University of Amsterdam|Picturing Art History is a ‘fundamental chapter in the history of art. It demonstrates how important reproductions of works of art have been in the development of ideas on art history (...). For the first time an analysis is presented of the way art history texts were accompanied by images. (...) The three case studies highlight different relevant aspects of the subject as such. (...) More generally, the book contributes to the study of how mankind became familiar with artworks without having to see them firsthand.’
Ger Luijten, Director Fondation Custodia, Paris
Ingrid Vermeulen
Picturing Art History
The Rise of the Illustrated History of Art in the Eighteenth Century
Books on art history are nearly always lavishly illustrated with quality colour reproductions of famous masterpieces. Yet this has not always been the case: it was only in the eighteenth century that art books came to be illustrated with beautiful images. Picturing Art History shows how the fundamentally new notion of the history of art as a visual history was responsible for this development. In the age before photography, paper collections of prints and drawings offered the only way to picture the artistic past. For the first time, illustrations became indispensable tools
as the new belief grew that art works rather than artists were the measure of the artistic past. Internationally renowned art scholars such as Bottari (1689-1775), Winckelmann (1717-1768) and d’Agincourt (1730-1814) collected reproductions in the form of prints and drawings, triggering discussions of the nature of illustrations as representations of art, classification of reproductions to demonstrate trends in art history, and the relationship between image and text in the art literature. With the help of illustrations, art history became an extraordinary visual experience, vital to the understanding of the history of art.
as the new belief grew that art works rather than artists were the measure of the artistic past. Internationally renowned art scholars such as Bottari (1689-1775), Winckelmann (1717-1768) and d’Agincourt (1730-1814) collected reproductions in the form of prints and drawings, triggering discussions of the nature of illustrations as representations of art, classification of reproductions to demonstrate trends in art history, and the relationship between image and text in the art literature. With the help of illustrations, art history became an extraordinary visual experience, vital to the understanding of the history of art.
Author
Ingrid Vermeulen
INGRID R. VERMEULEN is Associate Professor of Early-Modern Art History at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. Her research focuses on the early-modern history of art history grounded in art literature, collections, and museums. It generated the book Picturing Art History (2010) and the project The Artistic Taste of Nations (2015) funded by the Dutch Research Council (NWO).
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