MANDER, Karel van, & Hendrik HONDIUS - Lot 21

MANDER, Karel van, & Hendrik HONDIUS Het Schilder Boeck waerin Voor eerst de Leerlustige-Jeught den gront den Edele Vrye Schilderkonst in verscheyden deelen wort voor-gedragen Amsterdam, Cornelis Lodewijcksz & Cornelis van der Plasse, 1616-1618 KAREL VAN MANDER OR THE VASARI OF THE NORTH. AN EXCEPTIONAL COPY WITH A SUITE OF PORTRAITS OF FLEMISH PAINTERS ENGRAVED BY HENDRIK HONDIUS. 6 parts and a suite of engravings in 1 in-8 volume (222 x 165 mm). Woodcut initials, Gothic characters COLLATION: *6 **8 A-C8 *4 B-Z8 2A-E8 *8 A-P8 Q-S4 CONTENTS: *1r, Part One: Het Schilder Boeck waerin Voor eerst de Leerlustige-Jeught, Amsterdam, Cornelis Lodewijcksz, 1618; *1r, Part Two: Het Leven der Oude Antycke Dorrluchtighe Schilders. Amsterdam, Cornelis Lodewijcksz, 1617; E2r, part three: Het Leven der Moderne oft dees-tiitsche Dorrluchtighe Italienische Schilders, Amsterdam, Cornelis Lodewijcksz, 1616; Q7r, part four: Het Leven der Dorrluchtighe Nederlandtsche en Hoogh Duytsche Schilders, Amsterdam, Cornelis Lodewijcksz, 1617; *1r, fifth part: Het Leven der Dorrluchtighe Nederlandtsche/en Hoogh Duytsche Schilders, Amsterdam, Cornelis Lodewijcksz, 1616; O6r, sixth part: Uytbeeldinghe der figuren, Amsterdam, Cornelis Lodewijcksz, 1616. ILLUSTRATION: 1 steel-engraved title-frontispiece by Nicolas Lastman after Warnaar van de Valckert. ADDED ILLUSTRATION: 71 intaglio plates by Hondius, mostly folding, forming the suite Pictorum aliquot celebrium præcipué Germaniæ inferioris Effigies. ANNOTATION: handwritten note in brown ink in Dutch on the reverse of the figures in part four. CONTEMPORARY BINDING. Speckled calf, spine decorated with small irons and stork, speckled edges. PROVENANCE: Paris, May 13, 2011, no. 74 Upper hinge cracked, corners rubbed. The Het Schilder-Boeck (Book of Painters), originally published in 1604 in a slightly different version, was composed by Flemish Mannerist painter and writer Karel van Mander (1548-1606). In publishing this book, the "Vasari of the Netherlands" - who had actually met the Italian historian in Florence in 1571 - wished to highlight the excellence and originality of painters from Northern European schools, somewhat overshadowed by the success of Giorgio Vasari's Vite, which gave pride of place to Italian painters. The largest section of the book (416 pages), devoted to Flemish and Dutch painters, is divided into two parts: artists who died before 1604 (almost 96 biographies, 71 chapters) and those active at the same date (over 40 biographies, 23 chapters). A few painters and writers - Ciriaco de' Pizzicoli, Facio, Giovanni Santi, Rogier, Ghiberti, Vasari, Lampronius, Lambert Lombard and above all Lodovico Guicciardini - had partially explored the field of Northern painters before Van Mander's volume appeared, but it was with this "fundamental work" (Schlosser) that the real, systematic and detailed historiography of painters from the Northern schools was born. Van Mander's importance lies in having been the first to truly imitate and bring to life in the North the Italian model, long known in the historical field; at the same time, he is the first example of Vasari's growing influence in Europe. This Fleming is a typical representative of the Dutch "mannerism" of the Romanists, whose peculiarity is similar to that of their Italian contemporaries. For him, all salvation came from Antiquity and Italy; he made it very clear that a trip to Rome was indispensable - a requirement that has remained in force ever since - and his own example reinforces his statement. For this grandson of the Gothic, the Middle Ages have completely disappeared, forgotten, whereas for the Italians, they remained half-alive, at least in the heroic age of their 14th century. Nevertheless, Van Mander is nothing if not a slavish worshipper of Italian doctrine and form; he retains his Nordic and Flemish originality, as do in general those "Romanists" whose just appreciation was clearly given to us by our Heidrich, who died too soon... Equally characteristic of this Flemish by birth is the energy he deploys in the face of the Florentine-Roman dogma of disegno, before which he certainly bows with respect, to insist on Venetian color as an essential part of painting - this was undoubtedly an opinion close to his heart. When he says with the deepest conviction that landscape is a genre in itself, he perhaps owes it more to the northern Netherlands where he settled than to the southern Netherlands where he came from. (Cf. Schlosser, who also emphasizes the originality of Karel's "theoretical statements".