Preface and Acknowledgments

Hand, John Oliver; Spronk, Ron

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Preface and Acknowledgments

John Oliver Hand (Editor), Ron Spronk (Editor)

Essays in Context: Unfolding the Netherlandish Diptych

~~THIS VOLUME OF ESSAYS and the exhibition Prayers and Portraits: Unfolding the Netherlandish Diptych and its catalogue are the happy culmination of many years of research, travel, and discussion. The idea for the project grew from the study of a number of paintings in the Harvard...

Author

John Oliver Hand (Editor), Ron Spronk (Editor)

PublisherHarvard Art Museums

https://doi.org/10.37862/aaeportal.00045.003

Stable URL: https://aaeportal.com/?id=-18128

Preface and Acknowledgments

This volume of essays and the exhibition Prayers and Portraits: Unfolding the Netherlandish Diptych and its catalogue are the happy culmination of many years of research, travel, and discussion. The idea for the project grew from the study of a number of paintings in the Harvard University Art Museums: Virgin and Child from the workshop of Dirck Bouts, Albrecht Bouts’s Man of Sorrows and Mater Dolorosa (exh. cat. 4); and the Virgin and Child and Joos van der Burch with Saint Simon of Jerusalem (exh. cat. 40). The results of this research were fascinating and enigmatic, and the discovery of small but significant differences between paired panels led to larger questions about the nature of diptychs, especially in regard to their production, function, and “afterlife.”

The initial idea for an exhibition devoted to the Netherlandish diptych dates back to 2001, when the Harvard University Art Museums proposed a collaboration with the Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten in Antwerp. The project started in earnest in 2002 when the National Gallery of Art, Washington, and the Getty Foundation enthusiastically embraced the proposal. From the outset, in addition to a comprehensive technical study of a large number of panels and the exhibition, the project was to include a component that allowed for a broader discussion of the diverse issues surrounding Netherlandish diptychs. The Harvard University Art Museums received a Collaborative Research Grant from the Getty Foundation, which enabled a team of four to travel and extensively examine and document many of the paintings in the exhibition. In addition to Ron Spronk, who initiated, coordinated, and administered the research project, the team’s core members were Catherine A. Metzger, senior conservator of paintings at the National Gallery of Art; Catharina Van Daalen, Theodore Rousseau intern, Harvard University Art Museums (2003–2005); and Adriaan Verburg, Foundation Arcobaleno. It was a joy to work with them, and both individually and collectively their contribution is critical. The team received crucial help and support from literally hundreds of colleagues, who are acknowledged in full in the exhibition catalogue.

We are deeply grateful to the Getty Foundation for the Collaborative Research Grant that provided the funding for the technical examinations and for the publication of this volume. We were most fortunate to work with Joan Weinstein and Nancy Micklewright, our initial and present program officers. We would also like to express our gratitude to the Parnassus Foundation and to an anonymous friend of the Harvard University Art Museums who generously provided additional funding for equipment not covered under the Getty grant.

The Getty grant enabled us to invite a select group of scholars to come together to share information and learn the results of our investigations. Roundtable discussions took place on two occasions: in Antwerp at the Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten (22–23 November 2003), and in Washington at the National Gallery of Art (23–24 October 2004). We thank both institutions for graciously making their facilities available to us. In Antwerp special thanks go to Paul Huvenne, director; Nico Van Hout, curator; and Marie Geraerts. In Washington, Elizabeth Concha handled many administrative details, and John Conway and Hugh Colston were unfailingly helpful. The fruit of these meetings is contained within the covers of this book and we are deeply grateful to the authors for sharing their knowledge and insights. Melanie Gifford, Catherine A. Metzger, and Roger Van Schoute also made valuable contributions to the roundtable discussions. Catharina Van Daalen was an instrumental aid in numerous aspects of the organization of both meetings.

At Marquand Books in Seattle, we thank our editor, Suzanne Kotz, and Zach Hooker, for his elegant design. The Publishing Office of the National Gallery of Art, especially Judy Metro, Tam Curry Bryfogle, and Chris Vogel, kindly collaborated with Marquand Books.

We are especially indebted to the Harvard University Art Museums for its enthusiastic embrace of the overall project and particularly for the realization of this publication. The essay volume would not have been published were it not for the unwavering and critical support of Thomas W. Lentz, Elizabeth and John Moors Cabot Director; deputy director Richard Benefield; director of the Straus Center for Conservation and Technical Studies Henry Lie; and Luann Abrahams, assistant director for administration. Kathleen Kennelly, Stephanie Schilling, and Marsy Sumner aided in the administration of the Collaborative Research Grant. Evelyn Rosenthal worked closely with Marquand Books on the production of this volume. We would also like to thank James Cuno, former director of the Art Museums, for shepherding Ron Spronk’s initial ideas for the project through its early stages.

NOTE TO THE READER: This volume of essays is a companion to the exhibition catalogue by John Oliver Hand, Catherine A. Metzger, and Ron Spronk, Prayers and Portraits: Unfolding the Netherlandish Diptych (National Gallery of Washington in association with Yale University Press). Throughout this volume, the exhibition catalogue is cited as "Hand, Metzger, and Spronk 2006," and references to it entries are indicated by "exh. cat." A complete checklist of the catalogue entries in included herein.

John Oliver Hand
Curator of Northern Renaissance Paintings
National Gallery of Art

Ron Spronk
Associate Curator for Research
Straus Center for Conservation and Technical Studies

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