Tales of the City: Drawing in the Netherlands from Bosch to Bruegel

Sixteenth-century Netherlandish drawings are examined in this book in the context of the urban economic boom, the Protestant Reformation, and the Eighty Years War. It highlights the diverse roles that drawings played, from designs to tools for presentation and knowledge display, and how artists shaped urban communities and responded to cultural and political changes. The book features works by Bosch, Gossaert, van Heemskerck, Bruegel, and Goltzius and includes essays and catalogue entries from The Albertina Museum and the Cleveland Museum of Art.

Format: Hardback
Length: 336 pages
Publication date: 11 October 2022
Publisher: Yale University Press

An innovative exploration of sixteenth-century Netherlandish drawing, set against the backdrop of the urban economic boom, the Protestant Reformation, and the Eighty Years War. This captivating book showcases a diverse range of works by renowned artists such as Hieronymus Bosch (c. 1450–1516), Jan Gossaert (c. 1478–1532), Maarten van Heemskerck (1498–1574), Pieter Bruegel the Elder (c. 1525–1569), Hendrick Goltzius (1558–1617), and many others. By positioning drawing in the Low Countries during this pivotal period as a dynamic and multifaceted practice, the book sheds light on the various roles that drawings played. These drawings served as designs for prints, paintings, stained glass windows, decorative objects, and tapestries, as well as tools for presentation, translation, and the display of knowledge and virtuosity. The artists themselves were influenced by the diverse urban communities they inhabited, as well as the shifting cultural and political circumstances surrounding the Protestant Reform and the Eighty Years War. In addition to the four insightful essays included in the book, numerous catalogue entries, carefully selected from the holdings of The Albertina Museum and the Cleveland Museum of Art, present fresh research and insights into the artistic practices of the period. This publication is distributed for the Cleveland Museum of Art, with an upcoming exhibition scheduled at The Cleveland Museum of Art from October 9, 2022, to January 8, 2023. Furthermore, the exhibition will later travel to The Albertina Museum in Vienna in 2023, allowing a broader audience to appreciate the rich artistic heritage of the sixteenth century in the Low Countries.

Dimension: 305 x 229 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780300266696