A collection of essays by twelve scholars and museum curators examining the allure of Flemish painting to Americans over the past centuries, chronicling the roles played by determined individuals in forming private and public collections.

"In Painting Flanders Abroad: Flemish Art and Artists in Seventeenth-Century Madrid, Flemish immigrants and imported Flemish paintings cross the paths of Spanish kings, collectors, dealers, and artists in the Spanish court city, transforming the development and nature of seventeenth-century Spanish painting. Examining these Flemish transplants and the traces their interactions left in archival documents, collection inventories, art treatises, and most saliently Spanish "Golden Age" paintings, this book portrays Spanish society grappling with a long tradition of importing its favorite paintings while struggling to reimagine its own visual idiom. In the process, the book historicizes questions of style, quality, immigration, mobility, identity, and cultural exchange to define what the evolving and amorphous visual concept of "Flemishness" meant to Spanish viewers in an era long before the emergence of nationalism"--

Published in conjunction with the exhibition held at the Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens from September 28, 2013, to January 13, 2014.

02 This innovative book presents a fresh view of fifteenth-century Netherlandish art and the significance of its contributions to contemporary Italian art, notably in such areas as oil painting, landscape, and portraiture. Focusing on Florence, a prime center of Renaissance culture, the book explores for the first time the profound impact of Netherlandish works on Italian painters including Leonardo, Perugino, and Ghirlandaio.Paula Nuttall discusses Italian ownership of Netherlandish paintings in the fifteenth century and the shared artistic concerns of Florentine and Netherlandish painters. She examines in depth the various means by which artistic contact occurred, the growth in demand for Netherlandish art in Florence, and the holdings of the Medici and other collectors. With particular emphasis on the period 1460–1500, when the vogue for Netherlandish painting was at its height, the author shows that the consequences of Italian exposure to Netherlandish art were far more sweeping than has been understood before.Paula Nuttall is an independent scholar. She teaches at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London and at other U.K. institutions. She is a specialist on relationships between Netherlandish painting and Italy and has published widely in this area. This innovative book presents a fresh view of fifteenth-century Netherlandish art and the significance of its contributions to contemporary Italian art, notably in such areas as oil painting, landscape, and portraiture. Focusing on Florence, a prime center of Renaissance culture, the book explores for the first time the profound impact of Netherlandish works on Italian painters including Leonardo, Perugino, and Ghirlandaio.Paula Nuttall discusses Italian ownership of Netherlandish paintings in the fifteenth century and the shared artistic concerns of Florentine and Netherlandish painters. She examines in depth the various means by which artistic contact occurred, the growth in demand for Netherlandish art in Florence, and the holdings of the Medici and other collectors. With particular emphasis on the period 1460–1500, when the vogue for Netherlandish painting was at its height, the author shows that the consequences of Italian exposure to Netherlandish art were far more sweeping than has been understood before.Paula Nuttall is an independent scholar. She teaches at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London and at other U.K. institutions. She is a specialist on relationships between Netherlandish painting and Italy and has published widely in this area.

“A sleek, sophisticated, madly clever chamber mystery” from the international bestselling author—the basis for the film Uncovered starring Kate Beckinsale (The New York Times Book Review). A fifteenth-century painting by a Flemish master is about to be auctioned when Julia, a young art restorer, discovers a peculiar inscription hidden in a corner: Who killed the knight? In the painting, the Duke of Flanders and his knight are locked in a game of chess, and a dark lady lurks mysteriously in the background. Julia is determined to solve the five-hundred-year-old murder, but as she begins to look for clues, several of her friends in the art world are brutally murdered in quick succession. Messages left with the bodies suggest a crucial connection between the chess game in the painting, the knight’s murder, the sordid underside of the contemporary art world, and the latest deaths. Just when all of the players in the mystery seem to be pawns themselves, events race toward a shocking conclusion. A thriller like no other, The Flanders Panel presents a tantalizing puzzle for any connoisseur of mystery, chess, art, and history. “A beguiling puzzle—a game within a game within a game—solved in perplexing but entertaining fashion.”—The Philadelphia Inquirer “For mystery fans who yearn for literate, intelligent, sophisticated whodunits, Spanish author Pérez-Reverte’s highly acclaimed story fills the bill perfectly . . . An inventive plot, gripping suspense, fascinatingly complex characters, and innovative incorporation of art, literature, and music will enthrall readers looking for something a little different.”—Booklist “This intelligent mystery . . . comes up with a satisfying twist at the end.”—Library Journal

This is the first comprehensive and in-depth study of the earliest figural painting ever to have been produced in Flanders on a continual basis. Most of the manuscripts are Psalters, but Bibles, a Breviary, a Missal, a Netherlandic life of a saint, and yet other texts occur. Three main categories of illuminator are distinguishable: those working in Bruges, in Ghent, and, at least in part, for the circle of the counts of Flanders. The principal chapters and the catalog segments are organized around their individual contributions. An arrangement in time and place of the total body of work was obtained through a lengthy and rigorous process of comparison of figural, ornamental and writing styles, codicological and textual features. Several distinctive Flemish patterns of Psalter iconography have emerged; these are presented in tabular form with accompanying commentaries. A surprising amount of information about the early owners of the books, mostly well-to-do members of the laity, was yielded in the analysis for the manuscript catalogs.