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VU University Library Amsterdam is pleased to announce the publication of new books by Art History staff members Ingrid Vermeulen and Paul van den Akker. Please see below for more information on these books. - Picturing Art History : the Rise of the Illustrated History of Art in the Eighteenth Century / Ingrid R. Vermeulen. - Amsterdam : Amsterdam University Press, cop. 2010. - 358 p. : ill. ; 24 cm ISBN 978-90-8964-031-4 Books on art history are nearly always lavishly illustrated with quality colour reproductions of famous masterpieces. Yet this has not always been the case: it was only in the eighteenth century that art books came to be illustrated with beautiful images. Picturing Art History shows how the fundamentally new notion of the history of art as a visual history was responsible for this development. In the age before photography, paper collections of prints and drawings offered the only way to picture the artistic past. For the first time, illustrations became indispensable tools as the new belief grew that art works rather than artists were the measure of the artistic past. Internationally renowned art scholars such as Bottari (1689-1775), Winckelmann (1717-1768) and d’Agincourt (1730-1814) collected reproductions in the form of prints and drawings, triggering discussions of the nature of illustrations as representations of art, classification of reproductions to demonstrate trends in art history, and the relationship between image and text in the art literature. With the help of illustrations, art history became an extraordinary visual experience, vital to the understanding of the history of art. Ingrid Vermeulen is assistant professor of art history at the VU University Amsterdam. http://www.aup.nl/do.php?a=show_visitor_book&isbn=9789089640314 - Looking for Lines : Theories on the Essence of Art and the Problem of Mannerism / Paul van den Akker. - Amsterdam : Amsterdam University Press 524 p. : ill. ; 25 cm. ISBN 978-90-8964-178-6 Studies of Old Masters are often implicitly based on modern notions, which do not necessarily tally with ideas contemporary with their art. According to one such tacit assumption a work of art gains its status from the quality of the abstract pictorial composition made up of lines and colours. Whether discussing a medieval altarpiece, or a fresco by Raphael, it is customary to relate its artistic value to the abstract formal language into which the figures or narratives are translated, and not to the power of the visual illusion which is conjured up by the work of art. Referring to the ideas of art historians, critics and philosophers including Hogarth, Caylus, Goethe, Schnaase, Burckhardt, Wölfflin and Shearman, this theoretically revolutionary study questions the historical validity of this view by tracking down its origins back to the eighteenth century and then following its evolution up to the present day. Paying particular attention to the historiography of Mannerism, it scrutinises the influence that this view has had on aesthetic judgments over the past three centuries. A perfect companion for anyone engaged with aesthetics, this book offers a valuable contribution to the discussion surrounding the principles and values in art history. Paul van den Akker is lecturer at the Department of Art History at the VU University Amsterdam. http://www.aup.nl/do.php?a=show_visitor_book&isbn=9789089641786 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Mail submissions to [log in to unmask] For information about joining ARLIS/NA see: http://www.arlisna.org/join.html Send administrative matters (file requests, subscription requests, etc) to [log in to unmask] ARLIS-L Archives and subscription maintenance: http://lsv.arlisna.org Questions may be addressed to list owner (Judy Dyki) at: [log in to unmask] ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~