Man, Myth, and Sensual Pleasures: Jan Gossart's Renaissance

Ainsworth, Maryan W., ed., with Stijn Alsteens and Nadine M. Orenstein, and with contributions by Lorne Campbell, Ethan Matt Kavaler, Peter Klein, and Stephanie Schrader (2010)

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College Art Association Alfred H. Barr Jr. Book Award, Winner (2012)

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Description

Jan Gossart (ca. 1478–1532) was among the first Netherlandish artists to travel to Rome to make drawings after antique monuments and sculpture and then, upon his return, to introduce biblical and mythological subjects with erotic nude figures into the mainstream of Northern painting. Often credited with successfully assimilating Italian Renaissance style into the art of sixteenth-century northern Europe, Gossart is the pivotal old master who redirected the course of early Netherlandish art from the legacy of its founder, Jan van Eyck, toward a new style that would eventually lead to the great age of Peter Paul Rubens.

Man, Myth, and Sensual Pleasures: Jan Gossart's Renaissance offers a much-needed comprehensive reappraisal of the artist's accomplishments—the first in 45 years. It is not only an exhibition catalogue but also a study of Gossart's complete oeuvre as a painter, draftsman, and printmaker. Among the many highlights are the exquisite, gemlike Malvagna Triptych, Gossart's only surviving intact altarpiece; the Carondelet Diptych, one of the masterpieces of early Netherlandish portraiture; the Portrait of an Old Couple, an astonishingly trenchant psychological study; the extraordinary drawing of Adam and Eve from the collection of the Duke of Devonshire at Chatsworth; and a unique hand-colored etching of the young Charles V. To demonstrate the artistic milieu of which Gossart was a part, antique and Renaissance sculpture, paintings by contemporaries such as Gerard David and Bernard van Orley, and prints and drawings by Marcantonio Raimondi, Lucas van Leyden, and Albrecht Dürer are also discussed and illustrated.

The majority of the paintings in this volume have for the first time undergone rigorous technical examination by methods such as infrared reflectography, X-radiography, pigment analysis, and microscopy. As a result, many problems relating to attributions, dating, versions, and copies have been clarified, and a fuller understanding has been obtained of the artist's working procedures, the relationship between his drawings on paper and the underdrawings of his paintings, and the evolution of his technique and style. The results of a valuable dendrochronological study of the panel supports are also presented. Gossart's accomplishments as a draftsman have been enhanced by the acceptance of several additional drawings, while his prints receive their first in-depth evaluation.

The text draws on these unprecedented technical investigations as well as on recent original scholarship concerning many issues not adequately examined in the past. Among these topics are Gossart's early career as a proponent of Antwerp Mannerism, the full impact of his sojourn to Rome, the patronage of Philip of Burgundy (including a closer look at the erotic nature of court art), Gossart's dialogue with sculpture, the rationale behind his simultaneous portrayals of Late High Gothic and Renaissance architectural styles, and his experimentation with new modes of portraiture.

Table of contents

Directors' Foreword
Thomas P. Campbell and Nicholas Penny

Acknowledgments
Maryan W. Ainsworth

Lenders to the Exhibition

Introduction: Jan Gossart, the "Apelles of Our Age"
Maryan W. Ainsworth

The Painter Gossart in His Artistic Milieu
Maryan W. Ainsworth

Gossart as Architect
Ethan Matt Kavaler

Drawing for Diplomacy: Gossarts Sojourn in Rome
Stephanie Schrader

Gossarts Mythological Nudes and the Shaping of Philip of Burgundys Erotic Identity
Stephanie Schrader

Observations concerning Gossarts Working Methods
Maryan W. Ainsworth

Gossart as a Draftsman
Stijn Alsteens

Gossart and Printmaking
Nadine M. Orenstein

Catalogue

Paintings
Maryan W. Ainsworth with Lorne Campbell

Adam and Eve
Virgin and Child
The Passion of Christ
Mythological Themes
Possible Disguised Portraits
Portraits
Paintings Previously Attributed to Gossart

Drawings
Stijn Alsteens

Adam and Eve
Virgin and Child
The Life of Christ
Other Religious Subjects
Secular Subjects
Studies Related to Antique Art and Architecture
Ornament Drawings
Portrait
Drawings Attributed to Followers of Gossart

Prints
Nadine M. Orenstein

Prints by Gossart
Prints after Gossart
Sixteenth- and Seventeenth-Century Prints
Said to Be after Gossart

Appendix: Dendrochronology of Selected Paintings in the Gossart Group
Peter Klein

Works in the Exhibition
Bibliography
Index
Photograph Credits

About the authors

Maryan W. Ainsworth is Curator in the Department of European Paintings at The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Stijn Alsteens is Associate Curator in the Department of Prints and Drawings at The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Nadine M. Orenstein is Curator in the Department of Prints and Drawings at The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Lorne Campbell is George Beaumont Senior Research Curator at The National Gallery, London.

Ethan Matt Kavaler is Associate Professor in the Department of Art at the University of Toronto.

Peter Klein is Professor Emeritus at the University of Hamburg and at the University of Applied Art, Hildesheim.

Stephanie Schrader is Associate Curator in the Department of Drawings at The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles.

Press reviews

The Art Newspaper

"A massive enterprise ... a treatment so comprehensive that it will be definitive for generations."

CAA Reviews

"This is a landmark book of the highest scholarship, which will stand as the authoritative source on the artist for years to come. It has set the bar very high indeed for future scholarship, which one can only hope this sterling contribution will motivate."

London Evening Standard

"This splendid catalogue introduces [Gossart] as draughtsman and print maker, discusses (bravely) his collaborations, and places him in the context of his time. Brilliant."

Times Literary Supplement

"... welcome in giving public shape to a complicated career."

Sunday Telegraph

"... opulent catalogue ..."

Financial Times

"... excellent, indispensible catalogue raisonné ..."

The Burlington Magazine

"... a monument of fine scholarship, based on fresh ... examination of most of the works of art. ... the splendidly illustrated book will remain the long-lasting bible on Gossart ..."

Apollo

"A significant scholarly achievement in its own right, the exhibition's catalogue contains many excellent essays as well as a meticulously researched catalogue raisonné. The drawings section, by Stijn Alsteens, is notable for its confident use of the literature and its consummate sensitivity to the contingent nature of connoisseurship."

Los Angeles Times

"Excellent ... Gossart changed the way art looked in his influential corner of the world ... more deeply, more profoundly than any other artists in the region of the Burgundian Netherlands."

The New York Times

"A catalog of Gossart's complete oeuvre."

Library Journal

"Much-needed, comprehensive reappraisal of the artist's entire oeuvre ... This exceptional publication by expert contributors will be of interest primarily to graduate students, museum professionals, scholars, and art lovers."

Cassone

"This magnificently produced and richly illustrated catalogue will serve as the indispensable and solid foundation for understanding anything about Jan Gossart."

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