Diane Wolfthal

Shaping the Netherlandish canon : Karel van Mander's Schilder-boeck

A treatise on Dutch art on par with Vasaris critical history of Italian art, Karel van Manders Schilder-Boeck (or Book on Picturing) has long been recognized for its critical and historical influence--and yet, until now, no comprehensive account of the books conception, aims, and impact has been available. In this in-depth analysis of the content and context of Van Manders work, Walter S. Melion reveals the Schilder-Boecks central importance to an understanding of northern Renaissance and Baroque art. By interpreting the terminology employed in the Schilder-Boeck, Melion establishes the texts relationship to past and contemporary art theory. Van Mander is seen here developing his critical categories and then applying them to Ancient, Italian, and Netherlandish artists in order to mark changes within a culture and to characterize excellence for each region. Thus Melion demonstrates how Van Mander revised both the structure and critical language of Vasaris Lives to refute the Italians claims for the superiority of the Tuscan style, and to clarify northern artistic traditions and the concerns of Netherlandish artists. A much needed corrective to the view that Dutch art of the period was lacking in theory, Melions work offers a compelling account of a sixteenth- and seventeenth-century theoretical and critical perspective and shows how this perspective suggests a rereading of northern art. Walter S. Melion is assistant professor of art history at The Johns Hopkins University.

“A Hue and a Cry”: Medieval Rape Imagery and its Transformation

This article explores a medieval artistic tradition in which rape is shown as a savage act, worthy of condemnation. Unlike “heroic rape” images, these representations emphasize the key elements of coercion and violence. Yet even this tradition is subverted by the turn of the sixteenth century, as art becomes part of a public campaign to blame women not only for their own rape, but also for the suffering of their assailants.

Complicating Medieval Anti-Semitism: The Role of Class in Two Tales of Christian Violence against Jews

Miri Rubin justly concluded that “most remaining traces” of medieval atrocities against Jews “represent the position of Christian authorities—chroniclers, preachers, town officials—who were almost always writing in defence or celebration of the events.” The exceptions to this rule, however, are illuminating. This article explores images produced for Christians that condemn Christian acts of violence against Jews. Although these are few in number, their existence complicates our understanding of medieval anti-Semitism. The first part of the essay investigates an episode in a fourteenth-century French chronicle, the pillage of the Jews of Paris in 1380. The second part examines depictions of the fable of the murdered Jew, which date from the late thirteenth through the fifteenth century. Both narratives—one drawn from a historical event, the other grafted onto an ancient fable—portray the Jew as the innocent victim and the Christian as the treacherous assailant. In so doing, they reverse the better-known paradigm of the Jew as the evil aggressor who attacks innocent Christian boys or the consecrated host. This essay considers the circumstances that enabled some Christians to view with sympathy the figure of a vulnerable, attacked Jew and proposes that sometimes class interests trumped religious prejudice.

Jacques Callot's Miseries of War

In the last years of his life, Jacques Callot etched two series of prints illustrating the miseries of war. The first, in a smaller format and therefore called the Small Miseries of War, consists of six prints, which Callot etched ca. 1632.1 The later Large Miseries consists of eighteen prints that were published in 1633.2 Neither series is known to have been commissioned, and scholars without exception assume that Callot chose the theme himself.3 Scholars differ, however, about why Callot selected the subject and how the prints should be interpreted. Interpretations are often conflicting and none has gained wide acceptance. This study is an attempt to reexamine the problem.