Description
Temporarily out of stock
Title: Bold & the Beautiful, The: In Flemish Portraits
Author: CAUTEREN KATHARINA VAN
Format: HARDCOVER
Publication date: 01/09/2020
Imprint: CANNIBAL PUBLISHING
Price: $135.00
Publishing status: Active
Men in stately black, women with huge ruffs, children with golden rattles, old women with
wizened faces, and self-satisfied artists… These are the main players in just about every portrait
ever painted in the Southern Netherlands. From the15th to the 17th centuries, the tract of land
that we today call Flanders was the economic, cultural, intellectual and financial heart of Europe.
And money flows – with everyone who could afford it investing in a portrait.
Today, these cherished status symbols of the past have largely lost their original significance. But
beyond their functional and emotional aspects, these portraits turn their subjects into gateways
to the past. This book takes masterpieces from the collection of The Phoebus Foundation and
outlines the broad context in which they came into being, peeling back levels of meaning like the
layers of an onion. Whether captured in an impressive Rubens or Van Dyck, or an intimate
portrait by a forgotten artist, the persons portrayed were once flesh and blood, each with their
own peculiarities, hidden agendas and ambitions. Some portraits are very personal and
hyper-individual. Others are a little dusty, the ladies and gentleman being children of their time.
In most cases, however, their dreams and aspirations are surprisingly timeless and soberingly
recognisable.
The Bold and the Beautiful is an appointment with history: a meeting through portraiture with
men and women from bygone centuries. But for those willing to look closely, the border between
the present and the past is paper-thin.
Published on the occasion of the exhibition Blind Date. Portretten met blikken en blozen, Autumn
2020, in Snijders&Rockoxhuis Antwerp, curated by Dr. Katharina Van Cauteren & Hildegard Van
de Velde with a scenography by Walter Van Beirendonck.
ISBN: 9789463887403
Dimension: 290mm X 250mm