Jacob Van Loo 1614–1670 Arthena, 2001

Description

Mandrella David Jacob Van LooParis: Arthena, 2011. 32 x 23 cm., cloth binding under dust jacket, 285pp., 291 illus., 69 in color.Painter of exquisite refinement, superb colourist, and virtuoso draughtsman, Jacob van Loo was a master of genre and history painting as well as a consummate portraitist. Born in 1614, he spent the bulk of his career in Amsterdam, where he achieved great success from the early 1640s onward. Initially drawn to history painting inspired by pre-Rembrandt masters, he distinguished himself in genre scenes of gallant subjects, rivaling—and even surpassing—those of Vermeer, Metsu, and Ter Borch. Notable examples include the *Couple in an Interior*, a masterpiece in the Mauritshuis, The Hague. His remarkable family portraits also bear comparison with those of Thomas de Keyser, the fashionable portraitist of the day. A rich diversity of inspiration—from ostentatious, worldly, and aristocratic portraits to refined genre scenes and bacchanals with bold, stylized nudes set against landscape backgrounds—coalesces into a strong and unified style: the softness of his palette and the sumptuous, almost tactile rendering of silken fabrics link the *Magdalena Stockmans* of Cologne to the *Zorobabel* of Orléans; a splendid luminosity, under a frank golden light, caresses and models the timeless nudes of *Diana and Callisto*. The delicate landscape backgrounds are a unifying feature across his genre scenes and fables...Very fine copy