Illusion and Realism - The Game with the Spectator in Dutch Art 1580-1660

The book is a study of 17th-century Dutch painting, drawing and printmaking, focused on interlocking its descriptive realism with the visual strategy of illusion. The author analyzes this relationship as a conjunction rather than an opposition.

The book is a study on Dutch painting, drawing and printmaking of the 17th century, focused on interlocking its descriptive realism with the visual strategy of illusion. The author analyzes this relationship as a conjunction rather than an opposition. Illusionistic compositional devices were current not only in mythological, biblical and allegorical images but also in proper realistic representations of the world. At the same time, many visual inventions, which included illusionistic concepts, were presented with persuasive realism of the forms. Thus, different seventeenth-century Dutch artists such as Hendrick Goltzius, Hendrick Vroom, Rembrandt, Vermeer attempted to produce «open images» and to conduct a visual game with their beholders.

Autorentext

Antoni Ziemba is Professor at the Institute of History of Art, University of Warsaw. He is the Chief-Curator of the National Museum in Warsaw and author of several books and articles on Early Netherlandish and Dutch art of 15th-17th centuries.

Inhalt

Art history Dutch art of the seventeenth century Rembrandt Vermeer Hendrick Goltzius Hendrick Vroom Illusion Realism