LYNN F. JACOBS. Thresholds and Boundaries: Liminality in Netherlandish Art (1385-1530), Routledge, 2017, 256 p.
ISBN: 978-1472457813

lthough liminality has been studied by scholars of medieval and seventeenth-century art, the role of the threshold motif in Netherlandish art of the late fourteenth, fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries — this late medieval/early ‘early modern’ period — has been much less fully investigated.　　Thresholds and Boundaries: Liminality in Netherlandish Art (1385-1550)　addresses this issue through a focus on key case studies (Sluter’s portal of the Chartreuse de Champmol and the calendar pages of the Limbourg Brothers’ Très Riches Heures),　and on important formats (altarpieces and illuminated manuscripts).　 Lynn F. Jacobs examines how the visual thresholds established within Netherlandish paintings, sculptures, and manuscript illuminations become sites where artists could address relations between life and death, aristocrat and peasant, holy and profane, and man and God—and where artists could exploit the “betwixt and between” nature of the threshold to communicate, paradoxically, both connections and divisions between these different states and different worlds. Building on literary and anthropological interpretations of liminality, this book demonstrates how the exploration of boundaries in Netherlandish art infused the works with greater meaning.　 The book’s probing of the — often ignored –meanings of the threshold motif casts new light on key works of Netherlandish art.

JOSEFINA PLANAS BADENAS (ed.). Manuscrits il·luminats. La tardor de l’Edat Mitjana i els inicis del Renaixement, Universitat de Lleida, 2017, 204 p.
ISBN: 978-8491440086

L’interès d’aquesta recopilació d’estudis recau en el fet d’analitzar l’elaboració del llibre miniat durant un període cronològic, que inclou les darreres manifestacions gòtiques i els primers còdexs elaborats, d’acord amb les pautes formals del Renaixement. La línia divisòria que separa els dos períodes esmentats no es regeix per una cronologia estricta, sinó que en funció de la situació particular de cada un dels estats europeus es manifesta la persistència de la tradició gòtica o es percep la oració del nou llenguatge formal creat a la Toscana. Aquesta exibilitat ha permès reconstruir la creació de manuscrits il·luminats al llarg del segle XV i principis del XVI, ponderant la varietat de propostes estètiques que van conviure entre si, durant aquest període. L’anàlisi de diversos centres de producció artística i del paper protagonista dut a terme per destacats promotors de l’envergadura de la reialesa, l’aristocràcia castellana o la cúria papal, enriqueixen aquesta visió de conjunt. Finalment, l’estudi dels manuscrits elaborats a Roma, durant el Duecento, planteja una reflexió sobre la reinterpretació del món clàssic, amb totes les connotacions iconogràfiques i ideològiques que va implicar la recuperació d’aquest llegat en una fase prèvia a la gran eclosió del Renaixement.

C. CURRIE. Van Eyck Studies: Papers Presented at the Eighteenth Symposium for the Study of Underdrawing and Technology in Painting, Peeters, 2017, 598 p.
ISBN: 978-9042934153

Since Paul Coreman’s ground-breaking L’Agneau mystique au laboratoire in 1953, the Ghent Altarpiece, masterwork of the Van Eyck brothers, has been a major focus of research at the Royal Institute for Cultural Heritage (KIK-IRPA, Brussels). Some sixty years later, in the wake of a new conservation campaign in which KIK-IRPA is again playing the leading role, the art of Hubert and Jan van Eyck took centre stage at the Symposium XVIII for the Study of Underdrawing and Technology in Painting (Brussels, 19-21 September 2012). The event was organised by the KIK-IRPA and the Centre for the Study of the Flemish Primitives in collaboration with the Laboratoire d’étude des œuvres d’art par des méthodes scientifiques (Université catholique de Louvain-la-Neuve), and Illuminare – Centre for the Study of Medieval Art (Katholieke Universiteit Leuven).

The Ghent Altarpiece and the oeuvre of Jan van Eyck continue to captivate modern viewers and still arouse tremendous interest among art historians. The fascination with Eyckian art, with all its dazzling illusionistic effects and iconographic finesse, is every bit as fresh and challenging as it was six centuries ago.

During three days of presentations and intense discussions, eminent specialists from all over the world attempted to fanthom the secrets of Van Eyck’s success. They debated the issues from a variety of different standpoints, and shed new light on thorny topics such as attribution, iconography and painting technique.

This book captures the variety of thirty-seven papers presented at the symposium and provides state-of-the-art knowledge on one of the most significant painters of all time. It should be read in conjunction with the widely acclaimed website “Closer to Van Eyck”, which offers the scientific imagery of the Ghent Altarpiece in glorious high resolution.