Envisioning the Artist

The early modern period is defined, in part, by the emergence of the artist as a distinctive kind of human subject. This volume is concerned with images and discourses of the artist in the Netherlands from the late 15th century to the mid 17th century, when the relationship between a community of craftsmen and elite individuals, between consciousness of a native tradition and membership of international humanist society, between image and word, between hand, mind and spirit, were being actively defined. Discussions of architects, painter-poets and copyists critically engage with the Netherlandish artist’s identification with oil painting, which became ever-closer during this period. Contributions in which self-portraits, images of the studio and art literature are related to the practices, behaviour and economic lives of a range of practitioners, provide new insights into the artist not only as a producer but a figure produced by his work.