The Flemish Primitives : The Masterpieces

Rating:
Summary: RAISING THE BAR FOR ART PICTURE BOOKS
Review: Buy this book for the pictures. If you're here not by accident, then you must buy this book. There is almost nothing of this breath-taking pictorial quality, especially for the details. Are the letters "JANEYCK" hidden in the letters of the "Campin's" Merode vase? Did you know the Eyck's Adam had hairy nipples? This book may well allow you to see/believe that Hubert was not Jan's shadow, but actually the better painter, as the contemporary inscription always claimed. Shiver as you see the enamelling under the jewels on Jesus' medallion, then check out His hem-stitchery. See Jan's red shadowing of wrinkles in his self-portrait centuries before Rubens. The Portinari triptych: Is there smoke coming from St Anthony's nether region and did you see the shoe in St Margaret's monster's mouth? At least now you can clearly see.
Should you find what you're looking for in the text, that's a bonus. To me a lot is arthistoriantalk, mixed with some of what's available as scholarship. Description of routine skinfolds as "calligraphic", a routine thumb as a "taut crescent moon" are over the top. Then again, how does one describe chocolate or espresso other than via perfumery? You'd be hard pressed describing the male hands of the Goes "Adoration" without hyperbole. Buy this book. Perhaps other publishers will realize the standard they need to meet. So too the coming generation of Eyckian revival painters now struggling to see, as the Flemish Primitives saw.