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This book presents over ninety masterpieces by Flemish and Dutch artists to show how seventeenth-century Dutch painting could never have flourished the way it did without the foundations laid in sixteenth-century Antwerp. Thoroughly researched, it tells the story of the talented and accomplished artists and merchants who migrated north in search of religious liberty and new commercial opportunities after Antwerp fell to Spanish Catholic troops in 1585.

From Antwerp to Amste...

Hedendaagse blik op barokke meesterwerken

Hoe gebruikten de jezuïeten de barokke beeldtaal van hun tijd om het publiek te overtuigen van hun visie op mens, geloof en maatschappij? In dit prachtig geïllustreerde boek met onder meer talrijke werken van Peter Paul Rubens trachten verschillende auteurs die complexe vraag te beantwoorden.

De setting is Antwerpen in de zeventiende eeuw. De stad was in die tijd het hoofdkwartier van de jezuïetenorde in de Nederlanden en een bastion tegen het calv...

Beautiful monograph on photographer Ara Güler, aka ‘The Eye of Istanbul’

“The power of Ara Güler’s photography lies in the way it creates a unique visual language within the practice of photojournalism, which may not necessarily demand a ‘personal touch’.”

Turkey’s best-known photographer, Ara Güler (1928–2018), depicted daily life in Turkey for three-quarters of a century. Güler captured the rough edges of Istanbul as well as all its splendour. Celebrated as ‘The Eye ...

Unique view on the 'tronies' in art from the Netherlands

Our fascination for faces transcends eras and cultures. Turning Heads – Rubens, Rembrandt and Vermeer highlights a remarkable genre in painting to which little attention has so far been paid: tronies or study heads, which were intended first and foremost to depict an emotion or a character trait. Since the model’s identity did not matter, painters could truly go to town with these heads. Tronies were drawn and painted by some of the...

Awe-inspiring reference work on the Flemish and Dutch art of drawing from the sixteenth to the eighteenth century, with masterly drawings from the collection of the Royal Library of Belgium (KBR)

The Royal Library of Belgium in Brussels houses the largest collection of drawings in the country. Among its highlights are works by leading artists of the Low Countries, including Pieter Bruegel I, Joris Hoefnagel, Hendrick Goltzius, Peter Paul Rubens, Anthony van Dyck, and Jacques Jordaens.

As the ...

A magnificent introduction to the Cobra art movement

With French as its working language, Cobra was pretty much the last truly European movement within Modernism. The group’s anarchic story is not just an important strand in art history — it remains as lively as ever and has inspired all sorts of artists who were never directly involved with Cobra. The work bequeathed to us by Karel Appel, Pierre Alechinsky, Constant, Corneille and other kindred spirits is as fascinating as ever, both raw...

Exclusive insight into the finest hundred masterpieces from the permanent collection of the renewed KMSKA

The Royal Museum of Fine Arts Antwerp (KMSKA) has reopened after several years of major renovation. It is home to an especially varied collection of art that runs to more than nine thousand items: paintings, sculptures, assemblages, drawings and prints from the fourteenth to the twenty-first century.

Old Flemish masters like Jan van Eyck, Quinten Massys and Peter Paul Rubens feature along...

– 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�...