The Visible World: Samuel van Hoogstraten's Art Theory and the Legitimation of Painting in the Dutch Golden Age (Amsterdam Studies in the Dutch Golden Age)

477 Pages·2009·35.33 MB·English

by  Thijs Weststeijn

THIJS WESTSTEIJN
V W
The isible orld
Samuel van Hoogstraten’s
Art Theory and the
Legitimation of Painting in
the Dutch Golden Age
Amsterdam University Press
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The Visible World
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The Visible World 2
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samuel van hoogstraten’s art theory 8
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and the legitimation of painting 10
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in the Dutch golden age 12
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Thijs Weststeijn
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translated by
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Beverley Jackson and Lynne Richards
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amsterdam university press
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20 The publication of this book has been made possible by: The Netherlands Organisation for
21 Scientific Research (NWO); the Prince Bernhard Fund; Stichting Charema, Fonds voor
22 Geschiedenis en Kunst; Dr Hendrik Muller’s Vaderlandsch Fonds; J.E. Jurriaanse Stichting;
23 M.A.O.C. Gravin van Bylandt Stichting; Historians of Netherlandish Art.
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27 Cover design: Kok Korpershoek, Amsterdam
28 Cover illustration: Samuel van Hoogstraten, Perspective with a Woman Reading a Letter (Formerly
29 Identified as Margaret Cavendish), canvas, 242 x 179 cm, Royal Picture Gallery Mauritshuis, The
30 Hague.
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32 Lay-out: ProGrafici, Goes
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34 ISBN 978 90 8964 027 7
35 E-ISBN 978 90 4850 789 4
36 NUR 642
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38 © Thijs Weststeijn / Amsterdam University Press, 2008
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40 All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this
41 book may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any
42 form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise) without
43 the written permission of both the copyright owner and the author of the book.
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[Ik] derf vaststellen, dat een oprecht oeffenaer der Schilderkonst, die haer alleen om haer zelfs wil, en 1
om haeren deugtsaemen aert navolgt, waerlijk t’onrecht zoude versmaet worden. Alle wijsgeerigen 2
zijn tot geen staeten of burgerbestieringen beroepen, en niettemin zijnze in ’t versmaeden der werelt- 3
sche hoogheden by Plutarchus ... hoog genoeg gepreezen, schoonze aen de werelt geen grooter sieraet, 4
noch aen haer zelven meerder gerustheit en vernoegen, als onze Schilders in ’t oeffenen dezer beval- 5
lijke wijsgeerte, hebben toegebracht. 6
Samuel van Hoogstraten, 7
Inleyding tot de Hooge Schoole der Schilderkonst 8
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Jene trefflichen Niederländer, welche solche rein objektive Anschauung auf die unbedeutendsten 10
Gegenstände richteten und ein dauerndes Denkmal ihrer Objektivität und Geistesruhe im Stilleben 11
hinstellten, welches der ästhetische Beschauer nicht ohne Rührung betrachtet, da es ihm den ruhigen, 12
stillen, willensfreien Gemüthzustand des Künstlers vergegenwärtigt, der nöthig war, um so unbedeu- 13
tende Dinge so objektiv anzuschauen, so aufmerksam zu betrachten und diese Anschauung so besonnen 14
zu wiederholen ... Im selben Geiste haben oft Landschaftsmaler ... höchst unbedeutende landschaftliche 15
Gegenstände gemalt, und dadurch die selbe Wirkung noch erfreulicher hervorgebracht. 16
Arthur Schopenhauer, 17
Die Welt als Wille und Vorstellung I 18
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To Marieke 43
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4 Table of Contents
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9 preface and acknowledgements 9
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11 introduction 11
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13 i. samuel van hoogstraten in the republic of
14 letters 25
15 A learned artist: Van Hoogstraten as painter and poet 25
16 A courtiers’ handbook, novels and drama 34
17 ‘Visible’ and ‘Invisible’ Worlds 38
18 Elevating the status of painting 41
19 ‘The whole of Painting and all that pertains to it’ 48
20 Painting and rhetoric: rules of art and rules of conduct 65
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22 ii. the visible world 83
23 The ‘soul of art’: examining the ‘properties’ of things 90
24 The painter’s rewards: painting and philosophy 91
25 Painting as ‘universal knowledge’ 95
26 The meaning of the depiction of the visible world 108
27 The outlook of Stoicism 113
28 The Book of Nature and the eloquence of painting 115
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30 iii. pictorial imitation 123
31 An ideology of imitation 124
32 Imitation and self-knowledge 129
33 The imitation of examples and the imitation of nature 130
34 Imitating the inimitable 132
35 Painting as virtual reality 132
36 ‘As if he were another bystander’: the response theory of ekphrasis 137
37 ‘A gratifying indulgence in disparate parities’ 162
38 Emulation and the history of art 164
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iv. the depiction of the passions 171 1
The soul’s three parts 174 2
Body and mind, actions and passions 175 3
Passionate persuasion: beweeglijkheid and enargeia 182 4
Ethos and pathos 191 5
The depiction of the passions and pictorial realism 200 6
The ideal painter of passions: Rembrandt as pathopoios 206 7
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v. the eloquence of colour 219 9
Paint as flesh 220 10
The cosmetics of colour 223 11
‘Rough’ versus ‘fine’ brushwork 229 12
The colours of the Dutch countryside 241 13
A painterly art 252 14
The mute rhetoric of the visible world 260 15
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vi. painting as a mirror of nature 269 17
Paintings as mirrors 271 18
Deceiving the eye 273 19
‘Making things appear to be that are not’: painting as metaphor 281 20
Illusion and vanity 285 21
‘Through a glass, darkly’: visible and invisible worlds 295 22
Van Hoogstraten’s perspective box: 23
the bifocal gaze as memento mori 304 24
The painter and the visible world: 25
self-portraits by Van Hoogstraten and Rembrandt 312 26
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excursus: painting as a ‘sister of philosophy’ 329 28
The visible and the invisible 330 29
From qualities to particles: theories about optics 331 30
Van Hoogstraten and Van Blijenberg discuss body and soul 338 31
The philosophical status of the visible world 343 32
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conclusion 353 34
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notes 361 36
bibliography 443 37
indices 463 38
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table of contents 7
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Preface and Acknowledgements 4
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‘Painting, sir, I have heard say, is a mystery’, says the pimp Pompey in Shakespeare’s Measure for 9
Measure. Implicitly he elucidates this mystery with a reference to his whores, who use the deceit 10
of painting to enhance their looks. I never sought such irony in Samuel van Hoogstraten. My 11
interest in his treatise was sparked by a fundamental question, which I first encountered during 12
my studies at a small art college in Amsterdam: ‘Why do artists depict the visible world?’ Van 13
Hoogstraten’s book of painting seemed to reveal what he and his colleagues were about in their 14
apparently unpretentious depictions of cloudy skies, interiors and the play of the light. 15
Soon I found that neither my question nor my expectations of Van Hoogstraten’s trea- 16
tise accorded with the seventeenth-century situation. Fortunately I was supported in the re- 17
ordering of my ideas by Eric Jan Sluijter, the supervisor of the dissertation at the University 18
of Amsterdam which was the basis for this book. His expertise and the great confidence with 19
which he guided the research saved me from many a false step. He also unfailingly shared my 20
conviction that Van Hoogstraten has something particular to say about the extraordinary blos- 21
soming and the specific nature of Dutch art in the seventeenth century. 22
This book had existed as an idea, however, for rather longer: Ernst van de Wetering’s 23
attachment to Van Hoogstraten as a rare conduit to the thoughts of important Dutch masters 24
was a source of inspiration. I am also indebted in this regard to Maarten van Nierop, whose 25
encouragement sustained me as I wrote. His ideas about traditions and structures in history 26
provided a framework for my treatment of works of art and figures from the past. 27
The English translation was undertaken with great skill by Beverley Jackson and Lynne 28
Richards, whose lives I often made difficult with my specific wishes – not least my insistence 29
on retaining the word ‘legitimation’, even in the title. Their work was made possible by the 30
Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research, which also funded my appointment and 31
enabled me to proclaim the importance of Van Hoogstraten’s ideas from Amsterdam to Rome 32
and from Tokyo to Rio de Janeiro. 33
To some extent I have been able to follow in the footsteps of Van Hoogstraten’s peri- 34
patetic career, and my gratitude goes to the Dutch University Institute for Art History in 35
Florence, where Gert-Jan van der Sman and Bert Meijer made me welcome, and the Royal 36
Netherlands Institute in Rome. I should also like to thank the people at the library of the Art 37
History Institute of the University of Amsterdam, the Rijksmuseum, the Bibliotheca Hertz- 38
iana, the Deutsches Kunsthistorisches Institut, the Warburg Library and the British Library. 39
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A great many of the staff of the Amsterdam University Press were involved in some way in 41
the book: I was able to call for assistance on Paulien Retèl and Christine Waslander, as well as 42
Marleen Souverein, Chantal Nicolaes and Ilona van Tuinen. My thanks also go the members 43
of the editorial board who included the book in the Dutch Golden Age series. 44
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