Bibliograph

The upside-down world, meetings with the Dutch masters, Benjamin Moser

Type

Label

The upside-down world, meetings with the Dutch masters, Benjamin Moser

Language

eng

Bibliography note

Includes bibliographical references (pages 353-358) and index

resource.biographical

collective biography

Illustrations

illustrations

Index

index present

Literary Form

non fiction

Main title

The upside-down world

Nature of contents

bibliography

Oclc number

1362865871

Responsibility statement

Benjamin Moser

Sub title

meetings with the Dutch masters

Summary

"Arriving as a young writer in an ancient Dutch town, Benjamin Moser found himself visiting ... the country's great museums. Inside these old buildings, he discovered the remains of the Dutch Golden Age, and began to unearth the strange, inspiring, and terrifying stories of the artists who gave shape to one of the most luminous moments in the history of human creativity. Beyond the sainted Rembrandt--who harbored a startling darkness--and the mysterious Vermeer--whose true subject, it turned out, was lurking in plain sight--Moser got to know a whole galaxy of geniuses ... Year after year, as he tried to make a life for himself in the Netherlands, Moser found friends among these centuries-dead artists. And he found that they, too, were struggling with the same questions that he was. Why do we make art? What even is art, anyway--and what is an artist? What does it mean to succeed as an artist, and what does it mean to fail? Is art a consolation--or a mortal danger? The Upside-Down World is an invitation to ask these questions, and to turn them on their heads: to look, and then to look again. This is Holland and its great artists as we've never seen them before"--Page 2 of cover

Table Of Contents

Introduction: The way it had to be -- Where to start. Rembrandt: the shadow master ; Jan Lievens: not Rembrandt ; Ferdinand Bol and Govert Flinck: who is an artist? ; Carel Fabritius: the thunderclap ; Johannes Vermeer: the fingerprint beneath the frame -- The picture about anything. Gerard Ter Borch: the human condition ; Pieter de Hooch: a peaceful room in a peaceful land ; Gabriel Metsu: mammonomania ; Jan Steen: the airborne peacock -- Wall power. Hendrick Avercamp: the mute muse ; Frans Hals: at the crossroads ; Pieter Saenredam: infinity in the making ; Paulus Potter: the innocent eye test ; Jacob van Ruisdael: a tragedy for trees ; Albert Eckhout: the past in the land of the future -- Mayflower and May flowers. Rachel Ruysch: my manly art heroine ; Adriaen Coorte: art is -- Afterword: Going back home

Classification