Antwerp Art After Iconoclasm Experiments in Decorum, 1566-1585 Koenraad Jonckheere

The beeldenstorm, or the Iconoclastic Fury, that raged throughout the Low Countries in 1566 is a key concept in the history of the Netherlands. This popular uprising, which was partially grafted on Protestant ideas, has traditionally and unquestioningly been considered a turning point in the history of the Low Countries. It is all the more striking, therefore, that this occurrence has never received the attention it deserves in art history and that there has been little interest in the development of painting just after the beeldenstorm and before the advent of the great Baroque masters. Featuring previously unpublished materials, "Antwerp Art after Iconoclasm" investigates how the esteemed painters of the period - including Adriaen Thomasz Key (1544-1599), Maarten de Vos (1532-1603), Frans Pourbus the Elder (1545-1581), and Michiel Coxcie (1499-1592) - sought a new visual idiom. This study explains why this little-studied period of Netherlandish history should be considered an important turning point in the broader context of art history. It demonstrates that the era's paintings represent a subtle but nonetheless important reinterpretation of the traditional, religious iconography and style, which served as the starting point of Netherlandish Baroque style.

Koenraad Jonckheere is assistant professor at Ghent University.

"Magisterial . . . [a] visual delight . . . a stimulating read . . . a thoughtful, penetrating consideration of a contentious period . . . Jonckheere has advanced our knowledge and our re-thinking of the late sixteenth century in Flanders by a quantum leap."--Larry Silver, "HNA (Historians of Netherlandish Art) Review of Books"
--Larry Silver "HNA Review of Books "