Elizabeth Morrison – Flemish Manuscript Painting in Context

Автор: Elizabeth Morrison
Название книги: Flemish Manuscript Painting in Context
Формат: PDF
Жанр: Живопись и Графический дизайн
Качество: Изначально компьютерное, E-book

While working on the catalogue for Illuminating the Renaissance: The
Triumph of Flemish Manuscript Painting in Europe, we and our colleague Scot
McKendrick, who coorganized the exhibition with Thomas Kren, were constantly
reminded of the extraordinary vitality of research in the field of Flemish
manuscript illumination. Even as entries and essays for the catalogue were
being completed for editing, new articles, exhibition catalogues, and books
were appearing that dealt with one aspect or another of the sprawling topic of
Flemish book painting between 1470 and 1560. While there was clearly a need
for a synthetic treatment of the subject in the form of an exhibition and a catalogue,
the tremendous scope and richness of the literature that had preceded
our endeavor, going back 150 years, often gave us pause. And there seemed to
be noteworthy additions to the literature every month. Thus, when the opportunity
arose to hold symposia in conjunction with both the Los Angeles and
London presentations of the exhibition, significant scholarship was easy to
identify, sometimes happily arising from the exhibition itself. If anything, the
two conferences proved insufficient to feature all the new research. In the catalogue
itself we had deliberately limited the number of contributors in order to
give the volume as unified a scholarly perspective as possible. The conferences
offered the opportunity for a broader range of voices, viewpoints, and methodologies
to be heard.
This volume includes a selection of the papers that were presented
at the two symposia. The first was held at the Getty Museum in Los Angeles
on September 5–6, 2003, under the auspices of the museum, and the second
took place at the Courtauld Institute in London on February 21, 2004, under
the sponsorship of the Courtauld Institute and the Royal Academy of Art. We
have also included a related paper, with changes, by Margaret Scott that was
delivered in the Illuminating the Renaissance lecture series at the Getty on
August 7, 2003. The papers encompass a variety of approaches to the material,
including traditional studies in the form of essays on individual illuminators,
their chronologies, and the definition of their production; cross-disciplinary
research that takes into account cultural influences; examination of fashions in
Flemish book design; analysis of manuscript illumination by a paintings specialist;
and new methods of stylistic analysis abetted by scientific technology.
One of the themes that recurs in many of the papers concerns the evidence of
collaboration of different kinds within the production of a given manuscript or
project. Some of the essays respond to particular issues raised in the catalogue,
while others present entirely different themes and avenues of research.
We are grateful to Deborah Gribbon and William Griswold, former
director and former acting director, respectively, of the Getty Museum, as well
as our new director, Michael Brand, for supporting a program of scholarly
symposia in conjunction with the museum’s exhibition program. We also thank
John Lowden and Scot McKendrick for organizing the Courtauld event. We are
indebted to the contributors for their original talks and for their efforts in turning
their papers into publishable essays, often by taking into account the lively
discussion and debate that ensued at the symposia