Acknowledgements

The present book is a revised and translated version of my PhD dissertation, initially entitled Portraits de dévots, pratiques religieuses et expérience spirituelle dans la peinture des anciens Pays-Bas (1400–1550) and defended at the University of Liège on 18 December 2009. Financial funding for this research was provided through a doctoral fellowship of the F.R.S.-FNRS (Fonds National de la Recherche scientifique, Belgium). Revisions and additional research were made possible by grants of the Institut des civilisations, arts et lettres (INCAL) at the Université catholique de Louvain, of the F.R.S.-FNRS, by an HNA fellowship and by the generous support of the Fondation pour la Protection du Patrimoine Culturel, Historique et Artisanal (Lausanne). I am also grateful for the thoughtful comments and suggestions of the two anonymous readers for Brill, for the help with the copy-editing of Ghislaine Moucharte at the UCLouvain, and for the efficient help of Ivo Romein and Wilma de Weert in the publication process.

It is a great pleasure for me to acknowledge and thank all those who have contributed to the formation and completion of this book in its current form. Many people helped me in various ways to make this book the best it could be. My first and warmest thanks go to Reindert Falkenburg and Walter Melion, who both played an essential role in the achievement of this research and without whom this book would not be the same. I am deeply grateful to both of them for sharing their scholarly expertise and guidance: in the early stages of my research, Reindert Falkenburg not only provided me with advice on late medieval spiritual literature and art, but also offered me crucial support as I made my way in the world of academia. I am grateful to him for his guidance that has led to me making choices as to where I am now; Walter Melion, as editor of Brill’s Studies on Art, Art History, and Intellectual History invited me to publish in this series. He has been the most encouraging and attentive of editors. Without his support, the project in this format would not exist at all.

I also would like to express my gratitude to the many colleagues and friends who helped me during the different phases of the project. During my doctoral fellowship, I had the chance to benefit from the help and comments of many colleagues: Dominique Allart, Benoît Van den Bossche, Marie-Elisabeth Henneau, Annick Delfosse, Olivier Donneau, Maud Hagelstein, Alain Marchandisse, Christophe Pirenne, Emilie Corswarem, Christophe Masson, Jonathan Dumont, Brigitte D’Hainaut-Zvény, Hanno Wijsman, Céline van Hoorebeeck, Douglas Brine, Christian Heck, Valentine Henderiks, Renaud Adam, Alexandre Galand and Gilles Docquier. A special thank goes to my friends of the service d’histoire de l’art des Temps modernes who accompanied me during the four years of my doctoral fellowship: Mathilde Bert, Laure Fagnart, Isabelle Gilles and Sylvie Neven. In 2011–2013, I worked at Leiden University, within the Department of Dutch Language and Culture. I owe much to my Leiden colleagues Geert Warnar, Wim van Aanroij, Anna Dlabacova and Sanne de Vries, who contributed to the widening of my expertise in Dutch spiritual and mystical literature. During the last years, I have also benefited from the comments, suggestions and discussions of James Clifton, Veerle Fraeters, Barbara Haeger, Nigel Palmer, Kees Schepers, Michel Weemans and Eliott Wise, to whom I am especially grateful. I am particularly indebted to Bret Rothstein who has generously read previous versions of several chapters of this book, and to Elizabeth L’Estrange, not only a colleague but also and above all a close friend, who spent many hours since the early stages of this project to improve it both content- and language-wise. Any errors or interpretations remain, however, entirely my own.

Since 2013, I have been fortunate enough to work within the GEMCA (Group for Early Modern Cultural Analysis) at the UCLouvain. This research centre has been—and still is—a particularly rich and inspiring environment, both intellectually and personally. I would like to thank my fellow members, who offered me warm support and stimulating conversations about my research. My special thanks go to Ralph Dekoninck and Agnès Guiderdoni for their guidance, and to Lise Constant, Muriel Damien, Caroline Heering, Roxanne Loos and Delphine Schreuder for their support and true friendship. This book owes much to the GEMCA team!

During the years I have spent on this research, I have been lucky to have friends I could count on when I needed it. In this regard, my special thanks go to Ernst-Jan Munnik for the copies of articles he sent me and the images of works with devotional portraits that he so willingly sent me. I am also surrounded by a wonderful family. I would especially like to thank my parents for allowing me to follow my ambitions throughout my childhood. Without them, none of this would have been possible.

Last but not least, Christophe, with all my heart, thank you for everything: for having been there since the beginning, for helping me to stretch my limits, for paying attention to details, and above all for being such a loving and supporting partner.