In seventeenth-century Brussels, the careers of painters were shaped not only by their artistic talents but also by the communities to which they belonged. This

The appealing genre paintings of great seventeenth-century Dutch artists - Vermeer, Steen, de Hooch, Dou and others - have long enjoyed tremendous popularity. T

Prior to the modern age laughter raised passions and activated the body to sweat and shake. Derision was not distinguished from joy. Deceiving the senses by tri

Historians and art historians provide a critique of existing methodologies and an interdisciplinary inquiry into seventeenth-century Dutch art and culture.

This book examines the career of the Brussels artist Michael Sweerts through an examination of the artistic, intellectual and cultural contexts that shaped his