Marieke van den Doel (ed.): The Learned Eye ... - Sehepunkte

Marieke van den Doel (ed.): The Learned Eye. Regarding Art,
Theory, and the Artist's Reputation. Essays for Ernst van de
Wetering, Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press 2005, 228 S.,
ISBN 90-5356-713-5, EUR 34,50
Rezensiert von:
Catherine B. Scallen
Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland
As a literary form, the Festschrift presents special challenges, which
become greater in proportion to the standing of the scholar being
honored. Ideally, it should reflect the range of the scholar's own interests
and connections to other writers, and the essays should be of a quality to
stand on their own as contributions to the literature of the field. "The
Learned Eye: Regarding Art, Theory, and the Artist's Reputation",
succeeds in meeting these criteria, and more. By providing a larger
conceptual framework for the individual contributions through the concept
of "the learned eye," the volume achieves a kind of consistency of
thought, despite the range of topics and approaches.
The introduction by Thijs Weststeijn plays a crucial role in setting out the
framework of the learned eye. This phrase, traceable in form to classical
rhetoric, became a staple of Renaissance and early modern art theorists.
As Weststeijn tells us, this idea came to imply the supremacy of the artist
as a judge of art because of the importance of first-hand experience. This
idea is linked to Van de Wetering's own scholarly practice, informed by
his training as an artist and his deep attentiveness to individual works of
art as the starting point for his investigations. Weststeijn organizes the
volume's fifteen essays under four rubrics: the work of art, the rules of
art, the artist's reputation, and painters, patrons, and art-lovers,
categories that also reflect important themes in Van de Wetering's own
scholarship. As there is only space enough to single out a few among the
fifteen, I have chosen those that seem particularly close to Van de
Wetering's interests or methods.
Several of the essays treat painting practices in illuminating ways. For
instance, Karin Groen traces the use of the color red for a ground layer on
canvas paintings in the seventeenth century as reflecting older traditions
of preparing late medieval and early Renaissance polychromed stone
sculptures and murals, for reasons of cost and to facilitate drying and
gilding of surfaces. Margriet van Eikema Hommes examines the differing
approaches to depicting contours by four of the painters working in the
Oranjezaal of Huis ten Bosch - Salomon de Braij, Gerrit van Honthorst,
Cesar van Everdingen and Theodoor van Thulden - comparing their
approach to the theoretical discussions of how contours should be
depicted by such writers as Karel van Mander, Franciscus Junius, and

Willem Goeree. While each of these painters deviated to some degree
from the theoretical stance that contours should not be literally
delineated, they did so in ways that still preserved the goal of painters
and theorists alike: to enhance the sense of illusionism and convincing
pictorial space. The author suggests that Van Thulden, who most
consistently used contour lines, may have continued the practices of
Rubens and his Antwerp school.
In another close study of artistic practice, Anna Tummers considers
Aelbert Cuyp's application of established linear perspectival construction
methods to the creation of his landscapes. The author questions the
authenticity of a Cuyp painting in the Frick Collection in New York
(Dordrecht at Sunrise, 1650s) because of inconsistencies in the
application of perspective principles that lead to a more restricted sense
of depth, contrary to Cuyp's established practices.
Arthur Wheelock builds upon Van de Wetering's attention to the technical
use of color in seventeenth-century Dutch art by raising the issue of color
symbolism, a system of meaning well established in Netherlandish art of
earlier eras. Though this is an area of symbolic content not yet addressed
by contemporary scholars of Dutch art, he notes the considerable
attention that Karel van Mander and Samuel van Hoogstraten gave to
color symbolism in their writings. A list of colors and their symbolic
meanings appears four times in the papers of the Ter Borch studio estate,
leading Wheelock to ponder the "narrative potential" (108) of color
symbolism in two paintings by Gerard ter Borch, and to suggest its
relevance to a range of artists, including Jan Steen, Johannes Vermeer,
and, in certain cases, Rembrandt van Rijn.
Thijs Weststeijn reexamines the seventeenth-century understanding of
Rembrandt's gifts as a history painter when seen through the lens of
rhetorical strategies. Departing from Jan Emmens's positing of a negative
'classicist' critique of Rembrandt, Weststeijn finds in Samuel van
Hoogstraten a positive, rhetorically-based evaluation of Rembrandt as a
master whose work embodied passio (the passions) and enargeia (or
vivid illustration, emphasizing movement), and "the virtue of
ornatus" (120) or an appropriately ornamented style, in this case
referring primarily to Rembrandt's use of light and color. Van
Hoogstraten's praise of Rembrandt was cast in terms of "the virtues of
the ideal orator," thus providing an alternative model of judgment,
theoretically oriented yet positive in nature.
Eric Jan Sluijter poses the question of why Hendrick Goltzius took up the
art of painting late in his career, in 1600 at age 42. Sluijter indicates that
Karel van Mander's statements about how deeply impressed Goltzius was
by painting in Italy, which he saw in 1590-91, provide the most important
clue that this trip aroused a desire to compete with different means than
through his mastery of line expressed in drawings and engravings. He
suggests, though, that Goltzius wished to paint in a Venetian manner
(thus emphasizing the convincing depiction of flesh) and needed to find

someone who could teach him that. Sluijter offers as candidate for this
instructor Frans Badens, who had resided in Italy for four years,
accompanying Jacob Matham (Goltzius's stepson). The coincidence of
timing between Badens's return to Haarlem in 1597, and Goltzius's
production of technically accomplished oil paintings in 1600 might thus be
no accident, and Sluijter reminds us that Van Mander described Badens
"as a painter who played an important role in the recent changes in the
art of the Netherlands", (162) even if he has faded into obscurity for
modern audiences.
Michiel Franken discusses the important role of copies in the collection of
the great French art patron Paul Fréart de Chantelou, who commissioned
a number of copies of Italian paintings through the agency of Poussin.
Ironically, Poussin proved reluctant to have his own paintings copied for
Chantelou, and Franken suggests that this was a result of Poussin's desire
to protect the autograph nature of his art, which he produced without the
assistance of a collaborative workshop.
Finally, the inclusion of a bibliography of Van de Wetering's scholarship is
welcome and will prove useful for many scholars in the years to come.
While every Festschrift contains essays of value, "The Learned Eye"
maintains a higher level of general interest than many such volumes. The
editors wisely limited the size of the book, and picked contributors who
not only had close relationships with Van de Wetering but who could also
look at issues - and specific works of art - anew, with innovative
questions and approaches. The volume thus is an appropriate tribute to
Van de Wetering, the central issues of his scholarship, and his
unwavering commitment to works of art as the raison d'être of art history.
Redaktionelle Betreuung: Dagmar Hirschfelder
Empfohlene Zitierweise:
Catherine B. Scallen: Rezension von: Marieke van den Doel (ed.): The Learned Eye.
Regarding Art, Theory, and the Artist's Reputation. Essays for Ernst van de
Wetering, Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press 2005, in: sehepunkte 5
(2005), Nr. 12 [15.12.2005], URL:
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