German and Netherlandish Paintings, 1450-1600: The Collections of the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art

This volume concerns works by artists active during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries in the transalpine lands of northern Europe, which eventually became the modern nations of Germany, Belgium, and the Netherlands. The early Northern pictures feature masterpieces by great artists such as Petrus Christus and Joachim Wtewael, as well as radiant examples by other notable artists such as Lucas Cranach the Elder, Bernard van Orley, Jan Gossart, and Hans Memling.

Each of the twenty-five comprehensive entries by Burton L. Dunbar includes a thorough and engaging account of the artist’s career; complete technical notes; a detailed description; a fully documented commentary with a discussion of attribution, date, subject, and function; an exacting list of references that also summarizes the critical history of each work; and an up-to-date checklist of the painting’s provenance and exhibition history. Every work in the collection is reproduced in full color and with color details, and the volume’s usefulness is richly enhanced by more than 200 comparative illustrations.

The book includes a unique history of the collecting of early Northern paintings in the Midwest. Readers will also be fascinated by the abundance of information derived from the investigation of each work by contemporary experts in the rapidly evolving field of conservation, aided by tools such as infrared reflectography and dendrochronology.