Robert G. Erdmann – författare

Scholars have traditionally focused on the subjects and meanings of Hieronymus Bosch's works, whereas issues of painting technique, workshop participation, and condition of extant pictures have received considerably less attention. Since 2010, the Bosch Research and Conservation Project has been studying these works using modern methods. The team has documented Bosch's extant paintings with infrared reflectography and ultra high-resolution digital macro photography, both in infrared and visible light. Together with microscopic study of the paintings, this has enabled the team to write extensive and critical research reports describing the techniques and condition of the works, published in this extraordinary volume for the first time.Distributed for Mercatorfonds

Frans Hals is hailed as one of the three greatest painters of the Dutch seventeenth century along with Rembrandt and Vermeer. Of all seventeenth-century Dutch painters, Frans Hals is also the most controversial in as far as the exact scope of his oeuvre is concerned. Hals’s popularity, the lack of technical reference material as well as the differing views among experts as to the exact scope of his oeuvre make works in his style prone to doubts and misattributions. It has led to fierce debates and legal battles about the attribution of paintings done in his style.In this Open Access book, experts from Ghent University, Leiden University, Amsterdam University, Delft University of Technology, the Frans Hals Museum (Haarlem), the Rijksmuseum (Amsterdam), the Gemäldegalerie (Berlin) and the Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York) give surprising new insights into some of Hals’s most well-known paintings as well as into some of the most fiercely contested pictures in his style. Their insights result from in-depth study of a wealth of reference material: seventeenth-century sources, advanced technical analyses and newly developed digital visualisation tools.“Tummers and Erdmann have produced a work of ground-breaking new scholarship. They combine in-depth art historical study with new technical analyses and data visualisation tools in order to solve current issues in the attribution of paintings by Frans Hals. This book significantly sharpens our understanding of Hals’s virtuoso work process, his characteristic workshop practice, and his notion of authenticity. The rich data gathered for the case studies will be useful for a next generation of art historians and connoisseurs: digital tools enhance the human eye in matters of attribution.”Prof. Thijs Weststeijn, Professor of Art History before 1800, Utrecht University"Tummers bravely interrogates the history of connoisseurship and the seemingly never-ending search for attributions of paintings associated with Frans Hals. A series of well-chosen case studies of paintings rigorously subjected to the most current means of examination and scientific imaging by leading experts in the field extends our understanding of Hals, his manner of painting, and the possibilities for aligning traditional connoisseurship with technical studies and techniques. In the process, this book thoughtfully probes the merits, challenges, and potential of 21st-century digital tools alongside the role of visual analysis."Christopher D.M. Atkins, Van Otterloo-Weatherbie Director of the Center for Netherlandish Art at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

Compiled by members of the Bosch Research and Conservation Project and published on the 500th anniversary of Hieronymus Bosch's death, this is the definitive new catalogue of all of Bosch's extant paintings and drawings. His mastery and genius have been redefined as a result of six years of research on the iconography, techniques, pedigree, and conservation history of his paintings and on his life. This stunning volume includes all new photography, as well as up-to-date research on the individual works. For the first time, the incredible creativity of this late medieval artist, expressed in countless details, is reproduced and discussed in this book. Special attention is being paid to Bosch as an image maker, a skilled draughtsman, and a brutal painter, changing the game of painting around 1500 by his innovative way of working.Distributed for Mercatorfonds