Contents 1. Rembrandt Self-Portraits: The Creation of a Myth - Arthur K. Wheelock, Jr., National Gallery of Art, Washington 2. Reconstructing Rembrandt and His Circle: More on the Workshop Hypothesis - Walter Liedtke, The Metropolitan Museum of Art 3. Rembrandt at the Threshold - Susan Donahue Kuretsky, Vassar College 4. Comments on Rubens' Coup de Lance: Its Iconography, Style, and Importance for Eugène Delacroix - J. Richard Judson, Prof. Emeritus, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill 5. Rubens, His Patrons and Style - Walter Liedtke, The Metropolitan Museum of Art 6. Gender Issues in Seventeenth-Century Dutch Portraiture: A New Look - Alison McNeil Kettering, Carleton College 7. Remarks on Love, Woman, and the Garden in Netherlandish Art: A Study in the Iconology of the Garden - Sara M. Wages, The University of Maryland 8. The Strange Case of Jan Torrentius: Art, Sex, and Heresy in Seventeenth-Century Haarlem - Christopher Brown, The National Gallery, London 9. The Soothsayer by Jan Lievens in Berlin: An Attempt at an Interpretation - Maarten Wurfbain, Oegstgeest, The Netherlands 10. Ludolf de Jongh's The Refused Glass and Its Effects on the Art of Vermeer and De Hooch -Roland E. Fleischer, Prof. Emeritus, The Pennsylvania State University

The question of whether seventeenth-century painters such as Rembrandt and Rubens were exclusively responsible for the paintings later sold under their names has caused many a heated debate. Despite the rise of scholarship on the history of the art market, much is still unknown about the ways in which paintings were produced, assessed, priced, and marketed during this period, which leads to several provocative questions: did contemporary connoisseurs expect masters such as Rembrandt to paint works entirely by their own hand? Who was credited with the ability to assess paintings as genuine? The contributors to this engaging collection—Eric Jan Sluijter, Hans Van Miegroet, and Neil De Marchi, among them—trace these issues through the booming art market of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, arriving at fascinating and occasionally unexpected conclusions.

A new title in the successful Lives of the Artists series, which offers illuminating, and often intimate, accounts of iconic artists as viewed by their contemporaries. The enormous talent, range, and intellect of Flemish Baroque artist Peter Paul Rubens (1577–1640) had an immediate impact on his contemporaries and changed international perceptions about painting and painters. Lives of Rubens assembles three early biographies that illuminate this impact: rival artist Giovanni Baglione writes about Rubens’s works for the churches of Rome; Joachim von Sandrart demonstrates the highly favorable contemporary public opinion of Rubens; and painter and critic Roger de Piles staunchly defends Rubens’s work in response to criticism by the French Academy.

An extraordinary history of Netherlandish drawing, focused on the training and skill of artists during the long 17th century With a lively narrative thread and thematic chapters, this book offers an exceptional introduction to Dutch and Flemish drawing during the long 17th century. Victoria Sancho Lobis discusses the many roles of drawing in artistic training, its function in the production of works in other media, and its emergence as a medium in its own right. Beautifully illustrated with some 120 drawings by artists including Rembrandt van Rijn, Peter Paul Rubens, Hendrick Goltzius, Gerrit von Honthorst, and Jacob De Gheyn, this book surveys current methodologies of studying these works and features a brief history of Dutch papermaking and watermarks as well as a glossary. Paying careful attention to materials and techniques, and informed by recent conservation treatments, Lobis explains how to look at these drawings as records of experimentation and skill, true windows into the artist’s mind.

Although his popularity is eclipsed by Rembrandt today, Peter Paul Rubens was revered by his contemporaries as the greatest painter of his era, if not of all history. His undeniable artistic genius, bolstered by a modest disposition and a reputation as a man of tact and discretion, made him a favorite among monarchs and political leaders across Europe—and gave him the perfect cover for the clandestine activities that shaped the landscape of seventeenth-century politics. In Master of Shadows, Mark Lamster brilliantly recreates the culture, religious conflicts, and political intrigues of Rubens’s time, following the painter from Antwerp to London, Madrid, Paris, and Rome and providing an insightful exploration of Rubens’s art as well as the private passions that influenced it.