Micha Leeflang

The painter Joos van Cleve (c. 1485/90-1540/41) founded an important and influential workshop in Antwerp at the beginning of the sixteenth century. His business instinct and managerial character ensured that the shop ran smoothly and that there were both local and international clients for his output. More than 300 works are currently attributed to Van Cleve and his workshop. It is a remarkably large oeuvre, far exceeding that of any other contemporary Antwerp artist. The paintings that left his shop are of a superb quality and craftsmanship. Van Cleve and his assistants were responsible for lifelike portraits, altarpieces of varying sizes, and the mass production of popular devotional panels with subjects like The Holy Family, The Madonna of the Cherries and The Infants Christ and St John the Baptist Embracing. How, then, is it possible that these paintings are of such a high quality and craftsmanship? This book contains the answer. The international nature of Antwerp's economy, and of its art trade in particular, made Joos van Cleve and his paintings known far beyond the confines of the Low Countries. Although the information about his life and the composition of his oeuvre was unclear for a long time, Joos van Cleve can now once again be numbered among the great successful painters of the early sixteenth century.

Seventeeth-century Dutch art is famed throughout the world. Yet how ‘Dutch’ are those paintings in actual fact? Did the countless history pieces, landscapes, portraits, still lifes and scenes from everyday life truly originate in cities like Amsterdam, Haarlem, Delft and Leiden? Or might the cradle of these genres actually be located somewhere else? This book presents over 90 masterpieces by Flemish and Dutch artists to show how 17th century Dutch painting could never have flourished the way it did without the foundations laid in 16th century Antwerp. Thoroughly researched, it tells the story of the talented and accomplished artists and merchants who migrated north in search of religious liberty and new commercial opportunities after Antwerp fell to Spanish Catholic troops in 1585. With text contributions by Koenraad Jonckheere, professor of art history at Ghent University and author of the bestseller A New History of Western Art, Micha Leeflang, curator at the Museum Catharijneconvent, and Sven Van Dorst, head of the restoration studio at The Phoebus Foundation, and others.