Het Schilder-Boeck or Schilderboek is a book written by the Flemish writer and painter Karel van Mander first published in 1604 in Haarlem in the Dutch Republic , where van Mander resided. The book is written in 17th-century Dutch and its title is commonly translated into English as 'The Book of Painters' or 'The Book of (or on) Painting' and sometimes as 'The Book on Picturing'. Het Schilder-Boeck consists of six parts and is considered one of the principal sources on the history of art and art theory in the 15th and 16th century Low Countries . The book was very well received and sold well. Karel van Mander died two years after its publication. A second posthumous edition, which included a brief, anonymous biography of van Mander was published in 1618. This second edition was translated by Hessel Miedema into English and published in 1994-1997 together with a facsimile of the original and five volumes of notes on the text.
59-534: Het Schilder-Boeck is divided into six parts that have separate title pages and are indexed. The parts are: The history of early Netherlandish painting was first described by the Italian Lodovico Guicciardini in his Descrittione di Lodovico Guicciardini patritio fiorentino di tutti i Paesi Bassi altrimenti detti Germania inferiore (1567; The Description of the Low Countries). This book formed
118-532: A library , of which many manuscripts did not survive. Many worked for the Catholic Church and were in holy orders , like Petrarch, while others were lawyers and chancellors of Italian cities, and thus had access to book copying workshops, such as Petrarch's disciple Salutati , the Chancellor of Florence . In Italy, the humanist educational program won rapid acceptance and, by the mid-15th century, many of
177-651: A royal absolutist (and not a republican like the early Italian umanisti ) who was active in civic life, serving as a diplomat for François I and helping to found the Collège des Lecteurs Royaux (later the Collège de France ). Meanwhile, Marguerite de Navarre , the sister of François I, was a poet , novelist , and religious mystic who gathered around her and protected a circle of vernacular poets and writers, including Clément Marot , Pierre de Ronsard , and François Rabelais . Many humanists were churchmen, most notably Pope Pius II, Sixtus IV , and Leo X , and there
236-494: A "political reform program is central to the humanist movement founded by Petrarch. But it is not a 'republican' project in Baron's sense of republic; it is not an ideological product associated with a particular regime type." Two renowned Renaissance scholars, Eugenio Garin and Paul Oskar Kristeller collaborated with one another throughout their careers. But while the two historians were on good terms, they fundamentally disagreed on
295-894: A detachment from contemporary culture. Manuscripts and inscriptions were in high demand and graphic models were also imitated. This "return to the ancients" was the main component of so-called "pre-humanism", which developed particularly in Tuscany , in the Veneto region, and at the papal court of Avignon , through the activity of figures such as Lovato Lovati and Albertino Mussato in Padua, Landolfo Colonna in Avignon, Ferreto de' Ferreti in Vicenza, Convenevole from Prato in Tuscany and then in Avignon , and many others. By
354-442: A dismal mode of life. On the contrary, he alone shows the most enjoyable life of all and the one most full of true pleasure. This passage exemplifies the way in which the humanists saw pagan classical works , such as the philosophy of Epicurus , as being in harmony with their interpretation of Christianity . Renaissance Neo-Platonists such as Marsilio Ficino (whose translations of Plato's works into Latin were still used into
413-542: A list of notable works. The second edition includes a biography of van Mander himself that Miedema believes was written by his brother, who may have been with him on his deathbed. Other candidates have been proposed as authors of the biography. Recently his son Karel van Mander the Younger was identified as a possible author. His son would have relied on biographical information that Karel van Mander had written himself as well as on his own recollections and notes. The information in
472-463: A list of various animals, birds and other objects that can have meaning for the painter to include in his arrangement. This book includes some pagan rituals for use in historical allegories. Included before the index to the Metamorphoses , it is meant as an extra guide for that book. Because the pages are numbered only on the right-hand page, the indexes have an addendum to the page number to indicate
531-522: A long list of the sources on which Karel van Mander relied as he did for his own modern translation, and includes prints, photos of paintings, sculpture, architecture and stained glass window cartoons to illustrate the text. He also publishes new archival evidence. Lodovico Guicciardini Lodovico Guicciardini (19 August 1521 – 22 March 1589) was an Italian writer and merchant from Florence who lived primarily in Antwerp from 1542 or earlier. He
590-584: A pilgrimage site for St. Bavo . Its leaders commissioned paintings depicting the city's glorious past, such as in the story of the crusade against Damietta , which was the basis for the Coat of arms of Haarlem . Artists and writers helped update the local source of inspiration for art. Van Mander contributed to this effort by supplying a list of biographies of ancient painters in Lives of Ancient Egyptian, Greek and Roman painters and his commentaries on Ovid 's Metamorphoses and
649-457: A ploy, not seriously meant by Valla, but designed to refute Stoicism, which he regarded together with epicureanism as equally inferior to Christianity. Valla's defense, or adaptation, of Epicureanism was later taken up in The Epicurean by Erasmus , the "Prince of humanists:" If people who live agreeably are Epicureans , none are more truly Epicurean than the righteous and godly. And if it
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#1732856080477708-553: A small elite who had access to books and education, was intended as a cultural movement to influence all of society. It was a program to revive the cultural heritage, literary legacy, and moral philosophy of the Greco-Roman civilization . It first began in Italy and then spread across Western Europe in the 14th, 15th, and 16th centuries. During the period, the term humanist ( Italian : umanista ) referred to teachers and students of
767-657: A source for Giorgio Vasari 's famous biographical accounts of painters in his book Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects , often referred to as the Vite . That tradition took little account of the geographic topology of the Low countries and the van Eyck brothers were considered the fathers of Netherlandish painting concentrated in Bruges . Karel van Mander intended to correct this misconception by listing all
826-455: A view to updating it. What follows is a list of Vasari sketches that van Mander translated and included in his work: Van Mander is less known for his translated work on Italian art than he is for his biographical sketches of Netherlandish painters. What follows is the list of already famous painters from the low countries discussed in the book. Van Mander also described contemporary painters who he felt were of note. The following
885-550: Is a list of all of these painters. Van Mander had received a humanist training and had earlier published a translation of Ovid's Metamorphoses . In the Schilder-Boeck he provided a commentary on the Metamorphoses . Van Mander accepted the Renaissance view that there was no conflict between classical mythology and Old Testament history and that mythology was able to convey evangelical truths and lessons. For instance,
944-559: Is a subject of much debate. According to one scholar of the movement, Early Italian humanism, which in many respects continued the grammatical and rhetorical traditions of the Middle Ages, not merely provided the old Trivium with a new and more ambitious name ( Studia humanitatis ), but also increased its actual scope, content and significance in the curriculum of the schools and universities and in its own extensive literary production. The studia humanitatis excluded logic, but they added to
1003-667: Is names that bother us, no one better deserves the name of Epicurean than the revered founder and head of the Christian philosophy Christ , for in Greek epikouros means "helper". He alone, when the law of Nature was all but blotted out by sins, when the law of Moses incited to lists rather than cured them, when Satan ruled in the world unchallenged, brought timely aid to perishing humanity. Completely mistaken, therefore, are those who talk in their foolish fashion about Christ's having been sad and gloomy in character and calling upon us to follow
1062-456: Is still the most-cited primary source in biographical accounts of the lives of many artists he included. Of most interest to historians is his criticism of the work of these artists, especially when he describes the painting style, use of color, location and owner of the paintings, thus becoming a valuable source for art provenance . The Schilder-Boeck is included in the Basic Library of
1121-455: The Schilder-Boeck on Vasari's Vite . The Vite had been published half a century earlier. For this reason he only translated about half of Vasari's biographical sketches, and he added Italian artists from his years in Italy, such as Tintoretto who became known after Vasari's work was published. Van Mander also purposefully editorialized Vasari's biographies by reinterpreting some of Vasari's material and by adding to Vasari's text with
1180-438: The 13th century and in the first decades of the 14th century , the cultural climate was changing in some European regions. The rediscovery, study, and renewed interest in authors who had been forgotten, and in the classical world that they represented, inspired a flourishing return to linguistic, stylistic and literary models of antiquity. There emerged a consciousness of the need for a cultural renewal, which sometimes also meant
1239-509: The Low Countries , Poland-Lithuania, Hungary and England with the adoption of large-scale printing after 1500, and it became associated with the Reformation . In France, pre-eminent humanist Guillaume Budé (1467–1540) applied the philological methods of Italian humanism to the study of antique coinage and to legal history , composing a detailed commentary on Justinian's Code . Budé was
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#17328560804771298-558: The Protestant denominations . Some humanists, even moderate Catholics such as Erasmus , risked being declared heretics for their perceived criticism of the institutional church. A number of humanists joined the Reformation movement and took over leadership functions, for example, Philipp Melanchthon , Ulrich Zwingli , Martin Luther , Henry VIII , John Calvin , and William Tyndale . With
1357-676: The Renaissance period most humanists were Christians , so their concern was to "purify and renew Christianity ", not to do away with it. Their vision was to return ad fontes ("to the pure sources") to the Gospels , the New Testament and the Church Fathers , bypassing the complexities of medieval Christian theology . Very broadly, the project of the Italian Renaissance humanists of
1416-409: The classics , Renaissance humanists developed a new rhetoric and new learning. Some scholars also argue that humanism articulated new moral and civic perspectives, and values offering guidance in life to all citizens . Renaissance humanism was a response to what came to be depicted by later whig historians as the "narrow pedantry" associated with medieval scholasticism . In the last years of
1475-452: The dbnl ( Canon of Dutch Literature), which contains what its compilers believe to be the 1,000 most important works in Dutch literature from the Middle Ages to today. The Lives of the illustrious Netherlandish and German painters was translated into modern Dutch and English by Miedema and published in the 1990s. In his attempt to provide a systematic overview of the Lives , Miedema includes
1534-420: The humanities , known as the studia humanitatis , which included the study of Latin and Ancient Greek literatures, grammar , rhetoric , history , poetry , and moral philosophy . It was not until the 19th century that this began to be called humanism instead of the original humanities , and later by the retronym Renaissance humanism to distinguish it from later humanist developments. During
1593-403: The rationalism of ancient writings as having tremendous impact on Renaissance scholars: Here, one felt no weight of the supernatural pressing on the human mind, demanding homage and allegiance. Humanity—with all its distinct capabilities, talents, worries, problems, possibilities—was the center of interest. It has been said that medieval thinkers philosophised on their knees, but, bolstered by
1652-602: The upper classes had received humanist educations, possibly in addition to traditional scholastic ones. Some of the highest officials of the Catholic Church were humanists with the resources to amass important libraries. Such was Cardinal Basilios Bessarion , a convert to the Catholic Church from Greek Orthodoxy , who was considered for the papacy , and was one of the most learned scholars of his time. There were several 15th-century and early 16th-century humanist Popes one of whom, Aeneas Silvius Piccolomini (Pope Pius II),
1711-456: The 1390s. He considered Petrarch's humanism to be a rhetorical, superficial project, and viewed this new strand to be one that abandoned the feudal and supposedly "otherworldly" (i.e., divine) ideology of the Middle Ages in favour of putting the republican state and its freedom at the forefront of the "civic humanist" project. Already controversial at the time of The Crisis ' publication, the "Baron Thesis" has been met with even more criticism over
1770-404: The 14th century some of the first humanists were great collectors of antique manuscripts , including Petrarch , Giovanni Boccaccio , Coluccio Salutati , and Poggio Bracciolini . Of the four, Petrarch was dubbed the "Father of Humanism," as he was the one who first encouraged the study of pagan civilizations and the teaching of classical virtues as a means of preserving Christianity. He also had
1829-413: The 19th century) attempted to reconcile Platonism with Christianity, according to the suggestions of early Church Fathers Lactantius and Saint Augustine . In this spirit, Pico della Mirandola attempted to construct a syncretism of religions and philosophies with Christianity, but his work did not win favor with the church authorities, who rejected it because of his views on magic. The historian of
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1888-545: The Counter-Reformation initiated by the Council of Trent (1545–1563), positions hardened and a strict Catholic orthodoxy based on scholastic philosophy was imposed. However the education systems developed by Jesuits ran on humanist lines. Hans Baron (1900–1988) was the inventor of the now ubiquitous term "civic humanism." First coined in the 1920s and based largely on his studies of Leonardo Bruni, Baron's "thesis" proposed
1947-467: The Renaissance Sir John Hale cautions against too direct a linkage between Renaissance humanism and modern uses of the term humanism: "Renaissance humanism must be kept free from any hint of either 'humanitarianism' or 'humanism' in its modern sense of rational, non-religious approach to life ... the word 'humanism' will mislead ... if it is seen in opposition to a Christianity its students in
2006-616: The Renaissance humanists as occupying the same kind of "characteristic angst the existentialists attributed to men who had suddenly become conscious of their radical freedom," further weaving philosophy with Renaissance humanism. Hankins summarizes the Kristeller v. Garin debate as: According to Russian historian and Stalinist assassin Iosif Grigulevich two characteristic traits of late Renaissance humanism were "its revolt against abstract, Aristotelian modes of thought and its concern with
2065-565: The biographical sketch is not entirely reliable but is still regarded as the best source of information on van Mander's life. Van Mander was writing in a country where Calvinists were powerful and religious art was regarded with suspicion. The market for religious subjects was quickly replaced in favor of genre scenes and historical allegories. It became fashionable to choose politically correct subjects such as stories too old to be offensive to either Protestants or Catholics. The city of Haarlem needed to reinvent itself after losing its attraction as
2124-408: The course of the period. And so, the term studia humanitatis took on a variety of meanings over the centuries, being used differently by humanists across the various Italian city-states as one definition got adopted and spread across the country. Still, it has referred consistently to a mode of learning—formal or not—that results in one's moral edification. Under the influence and inspiration of
2183-438: The depiction of figures. The book begins with a book on the "foundation" of the art of paintings. This introductory book has fourteen chapters on art theory listing such subjects as landscapes, animals, drapery, and arrangements of subjects. Het Schilder-boek ' s biographies of ancient painters is almost entirely based on Pliny 's Naturalis Historia and offers no new material. Van Mander based this part of
2242-520: The development of scientific method, though this remains a matter of controversy. Dutch Renaissance and Golden Age Though humanists continued to use their scholarship in the service of the church into the middle of the sixteenth century and beyond, the sharply confrontational religious atmosphere following the Reformation resulted in the Counter-Reformation that sought to silence challenges to Catholic theology , with similar efforts among
2301-600: The diverse customs of the East, and gradually permitted expression in matters of taste and dress. The writings of Dante, and particularly the doctrines of Petrarch and humanists like Machiavelli, emphasized the virtues of intellectual freedom and individual expression. In the essays of Montaigne the individualistic view of life received perhaps the most persuasive and eloquent statement in the history of literature and philosophy. Two noteworthy trends in some Renaissance humanists were Renaissance Neo-Platonism and Hermeticism , which through
2360-434: The early biographers who used material from the Schilder-Boeck for their biographical sketches of Netherlandish painters or as a basis for developing their own art theory. The Lives of the illustrious Netherlandish and German painters is the longest book in the Schilder-Boeck . It has historically been and still is the most important book for historians looking for details on (early) Netherlandish painters. This book
2419-600: The existence of a central strain of humanism, particularly in Florence and Venice, dedicated to republicanism. As argued in his chef-d'œuvre , The Crisis of the Early Italian Renaissance: Civic Humanism and Republican Liberty in an Age of Classicism and Tyranny , the German historian thought that civic humanism originated in around 1402, after the great struggles between Florence and Visconti-led Milan in
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2478-460: The famous early Netherlandish painters. He encountered many difficulties in obtaining accurate information, due to the political and religious unrest at the time. The biographies in the Schilder-Boeck are similar in style and format to Vasari's Vite . Karel van Mander digresses only rarely from the format: starting per painter with an overview of the childhood years and a list of teachers, followed by some career information and concluding with
2537-471: The fourteenth and fifteenth centuries was the studia humanitatis : the study of the humanities , "a curriculum focusing on language skills." This project sought to recover the culture of ancient Greece and Rome through its literature and philosophy and to use this classical revival to imbue the ruling classes with the moral attitudes of said ancients—a project James Hankins calls one of "virtue politics." But what this studia humanitatis actually constituted
2596-404: The front (recto) or back (verso) of the "folio" to be able to locate text more efficiently. Looking up painters remains difficult because the indexes use first names rather than last names, since the last names in use by the painters themselves were not consistent in all regions where the painters were active. Many painters were better known by their nicknames than their given names. For this reason,
2655-455: The main wished to supplement, not contradict, through their patient excavation of the sources of ancient God-inspired wisdom." Historian Steven Kreis expresses a widespread view (derived from the 19th-century Swiss historian Jacob Burckhardt ), when he writes that: The period from the fourteenth century to the seventeenth worked in favor of the general emancipation of the individual. The city-states of northern Italy had come into contact with
2714-584: The myth of the Titans assaulting Jupiter's throne could be interpreted as an illustration of the Christian dictum that pride is the cause of all evil. The allegorized interpretation of the Metamorphoses of Ovid in the Schilder-Boeck is inspired by this Renaissance view of classical mythology. This part was well-received and was later sold as a separate book. The final book about the depiction of figures contains
2773-466: The nature of Renaissance humanism. During the period in which they argued over these differing views, there was a broader cultural conversation happening regarding Humanism: one revolving around Jean-Paul Sartre and Martin Heidegger . While this discourse was taking place outside the realm of Renaissance Studies (for more on the evolution of the term "humanism," see Humanism ), this background debate
2832-493: The new studies, they dared to stand up and to rise to full stature. In 1417, for example, Poggio Bracciolini discovered the manuscript of Lucretius , De rerum natura , which had been lost for centuries and which contained an explanation of Epicurean doctrine , though at the time this was not commented on much by Renaissance scholars, who confined themselves to remarks about Lucretius's grammar and syntax . Only in 1564 did French commentator Denys Lambin (1519–72) announce in
2891-480: The preface to the work that "he regarded Lucretius's Epicurean ideas as 'fanciful, absurd, and opposed to Christianity'." Lambin's preface remained standard until the nineteenth century. Epicurus's unacceptable doctrine that pleasure was the highest good "ensured the unpopularity of his philosophy". Lorenzo Valla , however, puts a defense of epicureanism in the mouth of one of the interlocutors of one of his dialogues. Charles Trinkhaus regards Valla's "epicureanism" as
2950-512: The revival of Greek literature and science via their greater familiarity with ancient Greek works. They included Gemistus Pletho , George of Trebizond , Theodorus Gaza , and John Argyropoulos . There were important centres of Renaissance humanism in Bologna , Ferrara , Florence , Genoa , Livorno , Mantua , Padua , Pisa , Naples , Rome , Siena , Venice , Vicenza , and Urbino . Italian humanism spread northward to France , Germany ,
3009-627: The spelling of the names used in the text does not always match the names in the indexes. The Schilder-Boeck introduced Dutch and Flemish artists to Italian art and encouraged them to travel to Italy. The Schilder-Boeck was very influential on art writing in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Cornelis de Bie ( Gulden Cabinet , 1662), Joachim von Sandrart ( Teutsche Akademie , 1675), Samuel Dirksz van Hoogstraten ( Inleyding tot de hooge schoole der schilderkonst , 1678), Filippo Baldinucci ( Notizie de' Professori , 1681) and Arnold Houbraken ( Schouburg , 1720) are some of
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#17328560804773068-411: The traditional grammar and rhetoric not only history, Greek , and moral philosophy, but also made poetry, once a sequel of grammar and rhetoric, the most important member of the whole group. However, in investigating this definition in his article "The changing concept of the studia humanitatis in the early Renaissance," Benjamin G. Kohl provides an account of the various meanings the term took on over
3127-683: The works of figures like Nicholas of Kues , Giordano Bruno , Cornelius Agrippa , Campanella and Giovanni Pico della Mirandola sometimes came close to constituting a new religion itself. Of these two, Hermeticism has had great continuing influence in Western thought, while the former mostly dissipated as an intellectual trend, leading to movements in Western esotericism such as Theosophy and New Age thinking. The "Yates thesis" of Frances Yates holds that before falling out of favour, esoteric Renaissance thought introduced several concepts that were useful for
3186-552: The years. Even in the 1960s, historians Philip Jones and Peter Herde found Baron's praise of "republican" humanists naive, arguing that republics were far less liberty-driven than Baron had believed, and were practically as undemocratic as monarchies. James Hankins adds that the disparity in political values between the humanists employed by oligarchies and those employed by princes was not particularly notable, as all of Baron's civic ideals were exemplified by humanists serving various types of government. In so arguing, he asserts that
3245-621: Was a prolific author and wrote a treatise on The Education of Boys . These subjects came to be known as the humanities, and the movement which they inspired is shown as humanism. The migration waves of Byzantine Greek scholars and émigrés in the period following the Crusader sacking of Constantinople and the end of the Byzantine Empire in 1453 was a very welcome addition to the Latin texts scholars like Petrarch had found in monastic libraries for
3304-539: Was buried there in the Cathedral of Our Lady . Renaissance humanism Renaissance humanism is a worldview centered on the nature and importance of humanity that emerged from the study of Classical antiquity . Renaissance humanists sought to create a citizenry able to speak and write with eloquence and clarity, and thus capable of engaging in the civic life of their communities and persuading others to virtuous and prudent actions. Humanism, while set up by
3363-442: Was not irrelevant to Kristeller and Garin's ongoing disagreement. Kristeller—who had at one point studied under Heidegger —also discounted (Renaissance) humanism as philosophy, and Garin's Der italienische Humanismus was published alongside Heidegger's response to Sartre—a move that Rubini describes as an attempt "to stage a pre-emptive confrontation between historical humanism and philosophical neo-humanisms." Garin also conceived of
3422-472: Was often patronage of humanists by senior church figures. Much humanist effort went into improving the understanding and translations of Biblical and early Christian texts, both before and after the Reformation, which was greatly influenced by the work of non-Italian, Northern European figures such as Erasmus , Jacques Lefèvre d'Étaples , William Grocyn , and Swedish Catholic Archbishop in exile Olaus Magnus . The Cambridge Dictionary of Philosophy describes
3481-598: Was the nephew of historian and diplomat Francesco Guicciardini . His best-known work, the Descrittione di Lodovico Guicciardini patritio fiorentino di tutti i Paesi Bassi altrimenti detti Germania inferiore (1567, Description of the Low Countries ), was an influential account of the history and the arts of the Low Countries , accompanied by city maps by various leading engravers. Guicciardini died in Antwerp in 1589; he
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