Schilder-boeck

Het Schilder-Boeck is divided into six parts that have separate title pages and are indexed. The parts are:

• The foundations of the noble and free art of painting (Den Grondt der Edel vry Schilder-const: Waer in haer ghestalt, aerdt ende wesen, de leer-lustighe Jeught in verscheyden Deelen in Rijm-dicht wort voor ghedraghen.)
• Lives of the illustrious ancient painters including Egyptians, Greek and Romans (Het Leven Der oude Antijcke doorluchtighe Schilders, soo wel Egyptenaren, Griecken als Romeynen)
• Lives of the modern or contemporary illustrious Italian painters (Het Leven Der Moderne, oft dees-tijtsche doorluchtighe Italiaensche Schilders.)
• Lives of the illustrious Netherlandish and German painters (Het Leven der Doorluchtighe Nederlandtsche, en Hooghduytsche Schilders.)
• Commentary on the Metamorphoses of Publius Ovidius Nasso (Wtlegghingh op den Metamorphosis Pub. Ouidij Nasonis.)
• Depiction of figures (Uvtbeeldinge der Figueren)

The history of early Netherlandish painting was first described by the Italian Lodovico Guicciardini in his Descrittione di Lodovico Guicciardini patritio fiorentino di tutti i Paesi Bassi altrimenti detti Germania inferiore (1567; The Description of the Low Countries). This book formed a source for Giorgio Vasari's famous biographical accounts of painters in his book Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, often referred to as the Vite. That tradition took little account of the geographic topology of the Low countries and the van Eyck brothers were considered the fathers of Netherlandish painting concentrated in Bruges. Karel van Mander intended to correct this misconception by listing all the famous early Netherlandish painters. He encountered many difficulties in obtaining accurate information, due to the political and religious unrest at the time.

The biographies in the Schilder-Boeck are similar in style and format to Vasari's Vite. Karel van Mander digresses only rarely from the format: starting per painter with an overview of the childhood years and a list of teachers, followed by some career information and concluding with a list of notable works. The second edition includes a biography of van Mander himself that Miedema believes was written by his brother, who may have been with him on his deathbed. Other candidates have been proposed as authors of the biography. Recently his son Karel van Mander the Younger was identified as a possible author. His son would have relied on biographical information that Karel van Mander had written himself as well as on his own recollections and notes. The information in the biographical sketch is not entirely reliable but is still regarded as the best source of information on van Mander's life.[1]

Van Mander was writing in a country where Calvinists were powerful and religious art was regarded with suspicion. The market for religious subjects was quickly replaced in favor of genre scenes and historical allegories. It became fashionable to choose politically correct subjects such as stories too old to be offensive to either Protestants or Catholics. The city of Haarlem needed to reinvent itself after losing its attraction as a pilgrimage site for St. Bavo. Its leaders commissioned paintings depicting the city's glorious past, such as in the story of the crusade against Damietta, which was the basis for the Coat of arms of Haarlem. Artists and writers helped update the local source of inspiration for art. Van Mander contributed to this effort by supplying a list of biographies of ancient painters in Lives of Ancient Egyptian, Greek and Roman painters and his commentaries on Ovid's Metamorphoses and the depiction of figures.[2]

Because the pages are numbered only on the right-hand page, the indexes have an addendum to the page number to indicate the front (recto) or back (verso) of the "folio" to be able to locate text more efficiently. Looking up painters remains difficult because the indexes use first names rather than last names, since the last names in use by the painters themselves were not consistent in all regions where the painters were active. Many painters were better known by their nicknames than their given names. For this reason, the spelling of the names used in the text does not always match the names in the indexes.

Title page of fourth part on Netherlandish and High-German painters

The Schilder-Boeck introduced Dutch and Flemish artists to Italian art and encouraged them to travel to Italy.

The Schilder-Boeck was very influential on art writing in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Cornelis de Bie (Gulden Cabinet, 1662), Joachim von Sandrart (Teutsche Akademie, 1675), Samuel Dirksz van Hoogstraten (Inleyding tot de hooge schoole der schilderkonst, 1678), Filippo Baldinucci (Notizie de' Professori, 1681) and Arnold Houbraken (Schouburg, 1720) are some of the early biographers who used material from the Schilder-Boeck for their biographical sketches of Netherlandish painters or as a basis for developing their own art theory.[9]

The Lives of the illustrious Netherlandish and German painters is the longest book in the Schilder-Boeck. It has historically been and still is the most important book for historians looking for details on (early) Netherlandish painters.[10] This book is still the most-cited primary source in biographical accounts of the lives of many artists he included. Of most interest to historians is his criticism of the work of these artists, especially when he describes the painting style, use of color, location and owner of the paintings, thus becoming a valuable source for art provenance.

The Schilder-Boeck is included in the Basic Library of the dbnl (Canon of Dutch Literature), which contains what its compilers believe to be the 1,000 most important works in Dutch literature from the Middle Ages to today.[11]

The Lives of the illustrious Netherlandish and German painters was translated into modern Dutch and English by Miedema and published in the 1990s. In his attempt to provide a systematic overview of the Lives, Miedema includes a long list of the sources on which Karel van Mander relied as he did for his own modern translation, and includes prints, photos of paintings, sculpture, architecture and stained glass window cartoons to illustrate the text. He also publishes new archival evidence.[12]

• The 1604 edition of Het Schilder-Boeck on DBNL (text and facsimile versions)
• Facsimile of the 1604 edition of Het Schilder-Boeck at Google books