How did objects move between places and people, and how did they reshape the Republic’s arts, cultures and sciences?

‘Objects’ were vitally significant for the early modern Dutch Republic, which is known as an early consumer society, a place famous for its exhaustive production of books, visual arts and scientific instruments. What happens when we push these objects and their materiality to the centre of our research? How do they invite us to develop new perspectives on the early moder...

– Antonio Muñoz Molina, El País

"This wonderful and wise book made me look at the artwork without intimidation or any confusion. It is a great pleasure to be guided by the experienced eye of Alejandro Vergara."

— Olga Tokarczuk, winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature

Throughout history, human beings have excelled at creating art of the highest quality. Aristotle wrote that Homer “surpassed all others” while Pliny the Elder referred to “masterpieces that we never tire of admiring�...

The official book of Hidden Portraits by world-leading digital artist Volker Hermes - volker.hermes on Instagram. This beautifully produced collection of work from a social-media phenomenon is a hoghly modern and mysetrious take on the Old Masters.

Can parents ever overcome the loss of their children? Theirs was a happy family: Jaap and Ellen van den Bergh and their two daughters, Rosemarie and Marianne. Then the German army invaded the Netherlands in May 1940 and everything changed. The family was of Jewish descent and they were no longer sure of their lives. By selling a serene painting by Pissarro, The Girl Lying in the Grass, they funded the expenses of their hiding place. Jaap and Ellen van den Bergh survived the war. For a long ti...

Leo Gestel en Gustave De Smet, vluchtelingen – zielsverwanten Gestel (1881-1941) en De Smet (1877-1943) kregen beiden de eerste schilderlessen van hun vader en kozen op jonge leeftijd voor een leven als vrij kunstenaar. Ze behoorden elk in eigen land al gauw tot de voorhoede, die het klassieke academische wilde afschudden en op zoek gingen naar stijlvernieuwingen. In Nederland waren dat Gestel, Sluijters en Mondriaan; in Vlaanderen De Smet met onder meer van den Berghe en Permeke.

De Duitse...

A unique guide to making sense of modern and contemporary art through seven different approaches, focusing on twenty major artworks from around the world.

A new way of appreciating art that puts the artwork front and centre, brought to us by one of the freshest and most exciting new voices in cultural criticism.

Carel de Moor (1655–1738). His Life and Work, a monograph and œuvre catalogue, is the first scholarly study of one of the most important Dutch portrait painters of his time. The book includes a comprehensive biography, which explores Carel de Moor’s life and multi-faceted career within the context of the economic, political, and social history of the Dutch Republic.

As a result of the authors’ thorough investigation of De Moor’s client networks, several hitherto unknown sitters have...