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Document Details : Title: Tot verheffinghe der vermaerste gheesten ende lief-hebbers der schildry Subtitle: Literaire aspecten van Het gulden cabinet (1662) van Cornelis de Bie Author(s): CALU, Pascal Journal: Spiegel der Letteren Volume: 53 Issue: 1 Date: 2011 Pages: 29-59 DOI: 10.2143/SDL.53.1.2071216 Abstract : Scholars have somewhat neglected Het Gulden Cabinet (1662) – a collection of biographies of artists – by Cornelis de Bie for a long time because it was deemed to be an inferior imitation of Van Mander’s Schilder-boeck (1604). Nevertheless, Het Gulden Cabinet occupies a specific position in the tradition of artists’ biographies: unlike most of his predecessors and successors, De Bie was no professional painter. He wrote his work as a rhetorician who deemed it his duty to honour Pictura. The atmosphere of renewed peace around 1660 and the efforts of Antwerp artists to found an academy to improve the level of painting made for Het Gulden Cabinet to have first and foremost a laudatory goal which entails that its literary nature comes to the fore. This paper discusses the specific intent of Het Gulden Cabinet and its literary nature. This manifests itself very clearly in De Bie’s use of anecdotes. |
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