NAIL - Netherlandish Art In London

Partly this is because although there are a number of specific guides to specific holdings- such as Lorne Campbell’s wonderful guide to The National Gallery’s collection of 15th Century Netherlandish paintings- part of the rationale of this site is that there is not an over arching guide to London’s art from this period. So a number of the books cited below only touch upon the works held in London Where thisis the case we will direct you to the particular entries, but do so with some diffidence as we would not in any wish to imply that these pages or entries should be read to the exclusion of the rest of the text.

But in part it is because London is a world class centre for the study of Northern European art from the 15th century and we should laud the considerable achievements of this group of dedicated experts and this is a good place to do it.

A word of warning though: with the exception of the Susie Nash, many of the books listed below are only in hard back and printed in comparatively short runs. Although their production values are high so is their cost and a number of them are beginning to become quite hard to track down. Use our public libraries while they are still with us!

Lorne Campbell; THE 15TH CENTURY NETHERLANDISH PAINTINGS IN THE NATIONAL GALLERY; national galleries Catalogues; 1998. This is the definitive guide to the national gallery’s collection of paintings from the period , although even in the last 10 years new research has moved us on a bit.

Sam Fogg; AN ALBUM OF MEDIEVAL ART; 2007; Sam Fogg. This sumptuous catalogue bears testimony to the industry of Sam Fogg and his team in finding and conserving ( and finding safe and appropriate homes) of rare and fragile objects from Northern European Medieval Art.

Fritz Koreny; EARLY NETHERLANDISHDRAWINGS; Rubenhuis; 2002. This is a catalogue from a wonderful exhibition in Antwerp in 2002 but is available in English and is a classic work , acknowledging the provisionality of many of our conclusions about these fragile works on paper.

The British Museum was very generous in its support of this exhibition and in the catalogue there are good reproductions and commentary on 6 of their many drawings from this period (using the catalogue numbers in the book- the book also has their British Museum unique catalogue references, which is useful):

1. The Taking of Christ;

7.The Archangel Michael;

15. Portrait of a Young Woman;

17. The Rich man in Hell;

19. Mary Magdalen;

24. Procession with the Holy Host.

Thomas Kren/Scot McKendrick; THE RENAISSANCE. THE TRIUMPH OF FLEMISH MANUSCRIPT PAINTING IN EUROPE; Royal Academy of Arts; 2004.

This handsome book , which is available in paperback, is the catalogue to a stunning exhibition of manuscript paintings held at the Royal Academy in the winter of 2003/2004

Susie Nash; NORTHERN RENAISSANCE ART; Oxford History of Art; 2008.

This excellent general account is highly recommended , not least for its details about the Seilern Triptych at the Courtauld Institute , where Dr Nash is a senior lecturer.

Paul Williamson; NETHERLANDISH SCULTURE 1450-1550; v&a PUBLICATIONS 2002.

While we wait for a proper space where sculture from this period can be seen on permanent display, this book that illustrates 50 works from the Victoria and Albert Museum’s considerable collection will have to do.