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Frans Floris (1519/20–1570): Imagining a Northern Renaissance
Series: - Brill's Studies in Intellectual History, Volume: 267/19
- Brill's Studies on Art, Art History, and Intellectual History, Volume: 267/19
Author:
Frans Floris de Vriendt radically transformed Netherlandish art. His monumental mythologies introduced a new appreciation for the heroic nude to the Low Countries and his religious art challenged standards of decorum. Born into a family of sculptors and architects, Floris refashioned his art through travel, first studying with the humanist painter Lambert Lombard in Liège and then continuing on to Italy. These experiences defined the hybridizing novelty of his art, forged by juxtaposing antique and modern, Italian and northern sources. This book maps Floris’s hybrid style onto shifting conceptions of cultural, religious, and political identity on the eve of the Dutch Revolt. It explores his collaborations and rivalries, engagement with artistic theory, hierarchical workshop, and revolutionary use of print.
Edward H. Wouk is Senior Lecturer in Art History and Visual Studies at The University of Manchester. His recent publications include
Marcantonio Raimondi, Raphael and the Image Multiplied (Manchester, 2016) and the co-edited volume, with Suzanne Karr Schmidt,
Prints in Translation (1450–1750): Image, Materiality, Space (Routledge, 2017).
“The best book ever written on the artist”.
Joseph Leo Koerner, Harvard University. In: Common Knowledge, Vol. 26, No. 1 (January 2020), pp. 161–162.
“Apparently they do make artist monographs the way they used to do. This massive tome, dedicated to one of the great yet neglected Netherlandish artists of the sixteenth century, fills a massive lacuna […]. At last, Frans Floris, a truly ambitious Renaissance artist in Antwerp and a major model for Rubens in the next century, gets his due from the distinguished Senior Lecturer at Manchester, Edward Wouk. […] this long-awaited, deeply contextual, book is lavishly illustrated with meticulous color reproductions by Brill within the excellent series edited by Walter Melion. We are all beneficiaries of this important analysis.”
Larry Silver, University of Pennsylvania. In: HNA Reviews, July 2018.
“monumental […] This is old-school art history, in the best sense of the phrase. […] a masterclass in how to assess an artist’s life and works. […] Frans Floris reads like a magnum opus. […] The book is essential reading not just for those interested in Floris, but for art historians, cultural historians and those interested in the production, dissemination, collection and reception of visual culture in early modern Europe.”
Elizabeth Savage, School of Advanced Studies, University of London. In: Oud Holland Reviews, September 2019.
“Exquisite […] Edward Wouk’s book on Frans Floris is likely to leave its readers perplexed, asking themselves how it is even possible that an artist of such conceptual complexity, unparalleled theoretical awareness, extraordinary imagination, and acute sense of entrepreneurship […] is only now receiving the focus of a comprehensive, beautifully illustrated monograph, complete with extensive appendices. But this astonishment would be in fact produced by the book itself, which in highlighting the above-mentioned qualities of Floris’s art, offers us the first true opportunity to recognize him “as the leading artist in the cosmopolitan community of artists, patrons, and humanists” […] Wouk’s book also enriches our understanding of Antwerp’s visual culture and art market in ways that are impossible to overestimate.”
Barbara A. Kaminska, Sam Houston State University. In: Sixteenth Century Journal, Vol. 50, No. 2 (Summer 2019), pp. 555–557.
“The author delivers a rich landmark biography and an impressive synthesis of the extensive bibliography on Floris, while illuminating his role in the development of Netherlandish art from 1540 to 1570.”
Séverine Lepape, Director, National Museum of the Middle Ages, Paris. In: Print Quarterly, Vol. 38, No. 1 (March 2021), pp. 99–103.
“When an inspiring art historian tackles the work of an inventive artist, an amazing book such as this one sees the light of day. Ed Wouk’s study of the oeuvre of Frans Floris drastically remodels the way we are to understand the confrontation of the Northern and Italian Renaissance in the sixteenth century.”
Koenraad Jonckheere, University of Ghent.
Joseph Leo Koerner, Harvard University. In: Common Knowledge, Vol. 26, No. 1 (January 2020), pp. 161–162.
“Apparently they do make artist monographs the way they used to do. This massive tome, dedicated to one of the great yet neglected Netherlandish artists of the sixteenth century, fills a massive lacuna […]. At last, Frans Floris, a truly ambitious Renaissance artist in Antwerp and a major model for Rubens in the next century, gets his due from the distinguished Senior Lecturer at Manchester, Edward Wouk. […] this long-awaited, deeply contextual, book is lavishly illustrated with meticulous color reproductions by Brill within the excellent series edited by Walter Melion. We are all beneficiaries of this important analysis.”
Larry Silver, University of Pennsylvania. In: HNA Reviews, July 2018.
“monumental […] This is old-school art history, in the best sense of the phrase. […] a masterclass in how to assess an artist’s life and works. […] Frans Floris reads like a magnum opus. […] The book is essential reading not just for those interested in Floris, but for art historians, cultural historians and those interested in the production, dissemination, collection and reception of visual culture in early modern Europe.”
Elizabeth Savage, School of Advanced Studies, University of London. In: Oud Holland Reviews, September 2019.
“Exquisite […] Edward Wouk’s book on Frans Floris is likely to leave its readers perplexed, asking themselves how it is even possible that an artist of such conceptual complexity, unparalleled theoretical awareness, extraordinary imagination, and acute sense of entrepreneurship […] is only now receiving the focus of a comprehensive, beautifully illustrated monograph, complete with extensive appendices. But this astonishment would be in fact produced by the book itself, which in highlighting the above-mentioned qualities of Floris’s art, offers us the first true opportunity to recognize him “as the leading artist in the cosmopolitan community of artists, patrons, and humanists” […] Wouk’s book also enriches our understanding of Antwerp’s visual culture and art market in ways that are impossible to overestimate.”
Barbara A. Kaminska, Sam Houston State University. In: Sixteenth Century Journal, Vol. 50, No. 2 (Summer 2019), pp. 555–557.
“The author delivers a rich landmark biography and an impressive synthesis of the extensive bibliography on Floris, while illuminating his role in the development of Netherlandish art from 1540 to 1570.”
Séverine Lepape, Director, National Museum of the Middle Ages, Paris. In: Print Quarterly, Vol. 38, No. 1 (March 2021), pp. 99–103.
“When an inspiring art historian tackles the work of an inventive artist, an amazing book such as this one sees the light of day. Ed Wouk’s study of the oeuvre of Frans Floris drastically remodels the way we are to understand the confrontation of the Northern and Italian Renaissance in the sixteenth century.”
Koenraad Jonckheere, University of Ghent.
Map of Antwerp (1565)
Acknowledgements
Abbreviations
List of Figures
1 Introduction. Fall and Redemption: The Divine Artist
2 A Portrait of the Artist: Floris’s Biography in Context
3 Iter Italicum: Floris’s Italian Journey in Context
4 Triumphal Entry: Floris’s Return to Antwerp (1546–49)
5 The Floris Workshop: Practice, Theory, Ritual
6 Portraits and Head Studies
7 Experiments in Religious Art: Style and Audience
8 Ardens amator artium: Floris, Niclaes Jonghelinck, and the Nature of Netherlandish Art
9 Losing Faith: Floris’s Allegory of the Trinity
10 Iconoclasm and Poesie
11 Humanæ Societati Necessaria: Frans Floris’s Vision for the Arts
12 Coda
Appendix A: Mentions of Floris in Literary Sources
Appendix B: Catalogue of Known Drawings in the Lost Album Dansaert
Appendix C: Text and Music of the chanson “Le Cruel Mars”
Appendix D: Timeline of Floris’s Chief Dated Works in Historical Context
Checklist of Paintings
Checklist of Drawings
Checklist of Prints
Notes
Bibliography
Index
Acknowledgements
Abbreviations
List of Figures
1 Introduction. Fall and Redemption: The Divine Artist
2 A Portrait of the Artist: Floris’s Biography in Context
3 Iter Italicum: Floris’s Italian Journey in Context
4 Triumphal Entry: Floris’s Return to Antwerp (1546–49)
5 The Floris Workshop: Practice, Theory, Ritual
6 Portraits and Head Studies
7 Experiments in Religious Art: Style and Audience
8 Ardens amator artium: Floris, Niclaes Jonghelinck, and the Nature of Netherlandish Art
9 Losing Faith: Floris’s Allegory of the Trinity
10 Iconoclasm and Poesie
11 Humanæ Societati Necessaria: Frans Floris’s Vision for the Arts
12 Coda
Appendix A: Mentions of Floris in Literary Sources
Appendix B: Catalogue of Known Drawings in the Lost Album Dansaert
Appendix C: Text and Music of the chanson “Le Cruel Mars”
Appendix D: Timeline of Floris’s Chief Dated Works in Historical Context
Checklist of Paintings
Checklist of Drawings
Checklist of Prints
Notes
Bibliography
Index
As the first monograph on the artist in over forty years, this book will be of interest to a wide range of readers, including art historians, cultural historians, and scholars from a variety of disciplines interested in artistic and material culture as well as cultural mobility, hybridity, and the relationship of art to politics and religion. Its engaging subject and narrative approach also make it accessible to BA and MA students in these fields as well as audiences interested in the history of the Low Countries/Netherlands/Belgium and Italy.