Erudite Eyes - Studies in Netherlandish Art and Cultural History by Tine Luk Meganck Paperback

About the Book

Erudite Eyes explores how friendship between artists and humanists in the network of Abraham Ortelius (1527-1598) produced an antiquarian culture that yielded new knowledge on local antiquities and distant civilizations and that articulated artistic practice between Bruegel and Rubens.

Book Synopsis

Erudite Eyes explores the network of the Antwerp cartographer Abraham Ortelius (1527-1598), a veritable trading zone of art and erudition. Populated by such luminaries as Pieter Bruegel, Joris Hoefnagel, Justus Lipsius and Benedictus Arias Montanus, among others, this vibrant antiquarian culture yielded new knowledge about local antiquities and distant civilizations, and offered a framework for articulating art and artistic practice. These fruitful exchanges, undertaken in a spirit of friendship and collaboration, are all the more astonishing when seen against the backdrop of the ongoing wars. Based on a close reading of early modern letters, alba amicorum, printed books, manuscripts and artworks, this book situates Netherlandish art and culture between Bruegel and Rubens in a European perspective.

Review Quotes

"The result is a text that usefully illuminates the links between artists, cartographers, antiquarians, humanists, poets, and publishers in the sixteenth-century Low Countries, comprising a book that will be a necessary point of reference for scholars and students of the period."
Stephanie Porras, Tulane University

"Erudite Eyes is a welcome addition to any library strong in Renaissance humanism, antiquarianism, or the history of collecting. An abundance of illustrations, including many color plates, gives this book the feel of an art-history text (Ortelius would approve!)."
John Cunnally, Iowa State University

About the Author

Tine Luk Meganck, Ph.D. (2003), Princeton University, is Assistant Professor at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (Brussels, Belgium). She is the author of, among others, Pieter Bruegel the Elder, Fall of the Rebel Angels. Art, Knowledge and Politics on the Eve of the Dutch Revolt (Silvana, 2014) and co-editor of Bruegel's Winter Scenes. Historians and Art Historians in Dialogue (Mercatorfonds/Yale University Press, 2018).