CORNELIS CORNELISZ VAN HAARLEM, A Monograph and Catalogue Raisonne.

Cloth bound with dusjacket, as new ! 1999. in 4to. 600 pp. of text, 468 illustrations, including 32 color plates. ISBN 9070288966. The monograph of Cornelis Cornelisz van Haarlem (1562-1638) is presented as an adherent of sixteenth-century artistic theory, in particular as taught by Karel van Mander in the so-called Haarlem academy. According to this erudite Flemish immigrant, Dutch artists were shamefully backward with respect to mastery in rendering the nude, the great accomplishment of the modern Italian masters. He must have viewed the art of his younger friend - who had taken his advice and overcome these shortcomings by pursuing a lengthy period of intense study 'from life' - as the ultimate fulfilment of his ambition to elevate Dutch history painting to the level of Italian art. Eight chapters are dedicated to the biography of Cornelis Cornelisz, his triple training as an artist, his artistic development, his training of pupils, his influence on the art of his time, his reputation among contemporaries, and the appreciation of his art through the centuries. A ninth, concluding chapter treats the iconographical aspects of two exceptional commissions which the artist received from the Amsterdam poet Hendrick Laurensz Spieghel, and the programmatic underpinnings of his greatest performance, the decoration of the Prinsenhof in Haarlem. Six appendixes contain original transcriptions of seventy-five documents concerning the artist and his family, including the unique list of art left by Cornelis Cornelisz, as well as other relevant sources. Five catalogues list the complete oeuvre of Cornelis Cornelisz, which comprises 303 paintings, either preserved or known from contemporary sources, a mere thirteen drawings, seven works in oil on paper, five models for prints, and twenty-three prints after his inventions.The catalogues are ordered iconographically, whereas the thirty-two colour plates and 365 plates in black and white are arranged in chronological order.Extensive indexes enhance the accessibility and usefulness of the volume.