Imitation and Illusion
Applied Brocade in the Art of the Low Countries in the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Centuries
By (author) Ingrid Geelen By (author) Delphine Steyaert
In the late Middle Ages luxurious textiles were among the most highly prized indicators of status and wealth and an essential requirement of prestigious secular and ecclesiastical life. The depiction of these sumptuous silks and gold brocades was a crucial element in the visual arts, and their realistic and recognizable representation was a challenge to every artist. Painters and polychromers strove to imitate the fashionable fabrics by using applied brocade, a highly sophisticated form of relief decoration that adhered to panel paintings, murals and sculpture and through the play of light and shadow evoked the dazzling illusion of gold-brocaded cloths. Imitation and Illusion is the result of a detailed study of applied brocade in the art of the Low Countries. Eleven fascinating and innovative chapters offer an in-depth examination of the historical, geographical, morphological and technical aspects of this cast tin relief technique. New light is also shed on artistic collaboration and workshop practice in the fifteenth and early sixteenth century. The catalogue includes 86 well known and lesser known panel and wall paintings, sculptures, altarpieces, and architectural elements produced between 1420 and 1540, decorated with applied brocade and providing stunning testimony to the visual variety and material magnificence of late-medieval art. Abundantly illustrated, Imitation and Illusion investigates the artistic production of the fifteenth- and sixteenth-century Low Countries from an intriguing and original perspective. It represents a significant contribution to our understanding of medieval polychromy and will appeal to everyone whose curiosity is aroused by the illusionistic ingenuity of the medieval artist.
- By (author) Ingrid Geelen
- By (author) Delphine Steyaert
Other Titles in this Series
Frans Pourbus l’Ancien a Tournai
Les panneaux peints pour l'abbatiale Saint-Martin. Histoire, iconographie, style, technique, restauration
Volume 14
A l’Escu de France
Guillebert de Mets et la peinture de livres a Gand a l'epoque de Jan van Eyck (1410-1450)
Volume 13
A Masterly Hand. Interdisciplinary Research on the Late-Medieval Sculptor(s) Master of Elsloo in an International Perspective
Proceedings of the Conference held at the Royal Institute for Cultural Heritage in Brussels on 20-21 October 2011
Volume 9
Brueg(H)el Phenomenon
Paintings by Pieter Bruegel the Elder and Pieter Brueghel the Younger with a Special Focus on Technique and Copying Practice
Volume 8
Un tresor devoile
Le Retable de l'Adoration des Mages du XVe siecle conserve a la Basilique San Nazaro Maggiore a Milan. Un chef-d'oeuvre bruxellois de Jan Borman
Volume 21
Flesh, Gold and Wood
The Saint-Denis Altarpiece in Liege and the Question of Partial Paint Practices in the 16th Century: Proceedings of the Conference Held at the Royal Institute for Cultural Heritage in Brussels, 22-24 October 2015
Volume 18
A Man of Vision. Paul Coremans and the Preservation of Cultural Heritage
Proceedings of the International Symposium Paul Coremans Held in Brussels, 15-17 June 2015
Volume 15
Made in Malines. Les statuettes malinoises ou poupees de Malines de 1500-1540
Etude materielle et typologique
Volume 16
Between Carpentry and Joinery
Wood Finishing Work in Europe and Medieval and Modern Architecture
Volume 12
Similar Books
Innovation and Medieval Communities
The Circulation of Ideas and Practices in and out of the Town (1200-1500)
Volume 63
Medieval Yeghegis, Armenia
History, Archaeology, Society. Local Multiplicities and Global Connections of a Rural Centre on the Silk Road(s)
Naples as Laboratory / Laboratorium Neapel
Style Options, Artistic Rivalry and Self Fashioning in Neapolitan Baroque Painting / Plurale Stilbildung, Kunstlerkonkurrenz und Self Fashioning in der neapolitanischen Barockmalerei
Nurturing the Elite
Representations of Drinking, Eating, and Religious Vessels in Palmyrene Funerary Iconography
Volume 13
Power and Women in Southeast and Central Europe in Late Medieval and Early Modern Period (1300-1600)
Volume 10
Technical Studies of Asian Art
Proceedings of the Seventh Forbes Symposium at the Freer Gallery of Art
Women in Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages
Studies from Western Europe and North Africa
Volume 44
Los oficios de los diplomas latinos de la Cataluna altomedieval
Estudio de las innovaciones lexicas: XI Premio Internacional de Tesis Doctorales Fundacion Ana Maria Aldama Roy de Estudios Latinos
Volume 106
A Communication Ethic of Dialogic Reformation
Nicholas of Cusa on Care for Communities in Crisis
Volume 106
