Art, Honor and Success in The Dutch Republic
The Life and Career of Jacob van Loo
Judith Noorman
9789462987982
312 pages
Amsterdam University Press
Overview
Focusing on the interrelationship between Jacob van Loo's art, honor, and career, this book argues that Van Loo's lifelong success and unblemished reputation were by no means incompatible, as art historians have long assumed, with his specialization in painting nudes and his conviction for manslaughter. Van Loo's iconographic specialty - the nude - allowed his clientele to present themselves as judges of beauty and display their mastery of decorum, while his portraiture perfectly expressed his clients' social and political ambitions. Van Loo's honor explains why his success lasted a lifetime, whereas that of Rembrandt, Frans Hals, and Vermeer did not. Taking an interdisciplinary approach, this book reinterprets the manslaughter case as a sign that Van Loo's elite patrons recognized him as a gentleman and highly-esteemed artist.
Author Bio
Dr. Judith Noorman is Assistant Professor in Art History and Director of the Amsterdam Centre for Studies in Early Modernity at the University of Amsterdam. She is the Principal Investigator of the NWO VIDI-project: The Female Impact. Women, the Art Market and Household Consumption, 1580-1720. In 2020, she published a monograph - Art, Honour and Success - as part of the AUP Book Series: Studies in Early Modernity in the Netherlands.
