Research Catalog

Title

Icons and enigmas : investigations in art / Pierre Vinken ; edited by Christopher Paparella and Heleen Vinken.

Author

Vinken, P. J.

Publication

Amsterdam : Prometheus, 2014.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Additional Authors

• Vinken, Heleen
• Paparella, Christopher

Description

540 pages : illustrations; 24 cm

Summary

"Icons and Enigmas is a collection of art history essays and one book that Pierre Vinken published over the course of fifty years. This collection reflects Vinken's abiding fascination with icons and symbols that, once understood, unlock hidden meanings in seemingly straightforward and often misunderstood art works. For instance, is the broken vessel in Jean-Baptiste Greuze's Girl with the broken pitcher just that, or did the artist intend to tell a more complex story? Is the man with the odd looking face in Frans Hals' The Regents and Regentesses a reflection of Hals' pique at his patrons' parsimony or a portrayal of a neurological disorder? Vinken solves these and other mysteries, often by using his medical training, in the pieces collected in Icons and Enigmas. Pierre Vinken (1927-2011) graduated from the University of Utrecht and was a practicing neurosurgeon for many years. Vinken then changed careers and became a publishing executive. Ultimately he became chief executive of Reed Elsevier, which under his leadership grew to become the largest scientific publishing company in the world. Throughout his life, Vinken had a keen interest in art history and was particularly preoccupied by iconology, especially in early Netherlandish art. He began publishing art history articles while still a student in the 1950's and continued to do so in the following years despite maintaining a full professional schedule and raising five children. In 2001, Vinken published The Shape of the Heart (reprinted here), a critically acclaimed investigation into the iconography of the familiar valentine's heart that was the product of years of research."--

Subject

• 1500-1699
• Art, Dutch > 16th century > Themes, motives
• Art, Dutch > 17th century > Themes, motives
• Symbolism in art > Netherlands
• Heart in art

Note

• Copyright The Pierre Vinken Estate.

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references (513-541).

Processing Action (note)

• committed to retain

Contents

The girl with the broken pitcher -- Non plus ultra -- Ars anatomica -- The foreground of Bosch's Death and the miser / co-author Lucy Schlüter -- Perdita juventus. A note on Pieter Bruegel's Haymaking -- Pieter Bruegel's Birdnester and man's encounter with death / co-author Lucy Schlüter -- Pieter Bruegel's Birdnester revisited / co-author Lucy Schlüter -- Hendrik Spiegel's Antrum Platonicum -- The Elsevier Non solus imprint / co-author Lucy Schlüter -- Realism, not malevolence in Frans Hals' Regents and regentesses / co-author E. de Jongh -- Frans Hals : perpetuator of an emblematic tradition in the Wedding portrait of Isaac Massa and Beatrix van der Laen / co-author E. de Jongh -- A Coornhert emblem as the source for Jan Steens So-called Burgomaster of Delft -- Jan Luyken's Second surprise -- On the other side is the promised land -- The shape of the heart -- How the heart was held in medieval art -- A heart was not intended -- The modern advertisement as an emblem.

ISBN

• 9789044618723 (hd.bd.)
• 9044618725 (hd.bd.)

OCLC

• 898121359
• SCSB-10430768

Owning Institutions

Harvard Library