Description: Long dismissed as dull face painting, portraiture as a visual art gained new interest with the rise of contextual art history, the study of works of arts as products, reflections, and sometimes motivators of the social and cultural concerns of their time. Whether taken to encompass the studies of anonymus heads that have now been shown to belong to the seperate category of 'tronies', or confined more strictly to the representation of individuals whose historical identity is essential to the content of the work, portraiture clearly constituted a fascination for Dutch and Flemish consumers of the early modern period. The aim of this volume is to show a balanced hand of current international research on 17th-century Flemish and Dutch - apparently pokerfaced - portraiture.
Brief description: Hannelore Magnus is a full-time PhD. fellow of the Research Foundation-Flanders (FWO) at the same Research Unit of KU Leuven. She prepares a doctoral dissertation on fashion, dance and courting in the oeuvre of the Antwerp genre painter Hieronymus Janssens (1624-1693). Katlijne Van der Stighelen is full professor of Early Modern Art History at KU Leuven. Her main research and publication topics are 17th-century Flemish art in general and portraiture in particular as well as woman artists. She is currently investigating aspects of technological imaging in collaboration with the University of Antwerp (Department of Chemistry) and is preparing a monograph on Michaelina Woutiers, an artist from Mons who lived in Brussels in the second half of the 17th century.