Book Reviews

Borman in Context; Un trésor dévoilé: Le Retable de l’Adoration des Mages du xve siècle conservé à la Basilique San Nazaro Maggiore à Milan. Un chef-d’œuvre bruxellois de Jan Borman; Borman. A Family of Northern Renaissance Sculptors

By Edited by Marjan Debaene and Hannah De Moor; Edited by Emmanuelle Mercier, Catheline Périer-D’Ieteren, and Sacha Zdanov; Edited by Marjan Debaene

Borman in Context
Edited by Marjan Debaene and Hannah De Moor
Turnhout: Brepols Publishers, 2025, 326 pp, 189 color illus & 28 b & w illus. ISBN 978-2-503-60799-3.

Un trésor dévoilé: Le Retable de l’Adoration des Mages du xve siècle conservé à la Basilique San Nazaro Maggiore à Milan. Un chef-d’œuvre bruxellois de Jan Borman
Edited by Emmanuelle Mercier, Catheline Périer-D’Ieteren, and Sacha Zdanov
Brussels: Royal Institute for Cultural Heritage, 2025, 277 pp, 237 color illus & 13 b & w illus. ISBN 978-2-930054-46-9.

Borman. A Family of Northern Renaissance Sculptors
Edited by Marjan Debaene
London and Turnhout: Harvey Miller Publishers, 2019, 312 pp, 363 color illus & 132 b & w illus. ISBN 978-1-912554-41-6 (hardcover) & 978-1-912554-46-2 (paperback).

Review published April 2026

Also of Note: Flesh, Gold and Wood: The Saint-Denis altarpiece in Liège and the question of partial paint practices in the 16th century Edited by Emmanuelle Mercier, Ria De Boodt and Pierre-Yves [...] Read More

Unforgettable: Women Artists from Antwerp to Amsterdam, 1600–1750

By Virginia Treanor and Frederica Van Dam (curators)

Washington, DC, National Museum of Women in the Arts, September 26, 2025 – January 11, 2026; Ghent, Museum of Fine Arts, March 7 – May 31, 2026.
Exh. cat. ed. by Virginia Treanor and Frederica Van Dam. Veurne: Hannibal, 2026. 284 pp. ISBN 978-9493416277.

Review published April 2026

Those who favor exhibitions that dazzle through variety would have appreciated Unforgettable: Women Artists from Antwerp to Amsterdam, 1600–1750. A collaborative project by curators Virginia Treanor [...] Read More

Early Modern Print Media and the Art of Observation: Training the Literate Eye

By Stephanie Leitch

Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2024. 360 pp. ‎ISBN 978-1009444521.

Review published March 2026

Few topics have attracted more attention in recent literature on the intersections of early modern art, science, and intellectual history than the “epistemic image.” This is a type of visual culture [...] Read More

Dürer’s Coats: Renaissance Men and Material Cultures of Social Recognition

By Ulinka Rublack

Vienna: Central European University Press, 2025. 152 pp, 28 color illus. ISBN 978-963-386-906-2 (paperback), ISBN 978-963-386-907-9 (ebook).

Review published March 2026

In a letter written from Venice on September 8, 1506, two of Albrecht Dürer’s garments said hello to the humanist Willibald Pirckheimer: “My French mantle greets you and my Italian coat also.” [...] Read More

Pride and Solace: Medieval Books of Hours and Their Readers

By Evelien Hauwaerts (curator)

Bruges, Groeningemuseum, April 4 – October 7, 2025.

Exh. cat. ed. by Evelien Hauwaerts with Emma De Nil and Caroline Van Cauwenberge, English edition: Books of Hours, Books of Hope: Medieval Books of Hours and their Readers, Antwerp: Hannibal Books, 2025, 160 pp. ISBN 978-9464941951; Dutch edition: Trots en Troost: Middeleuuwse getijdenboeken en hun lezers. ISBN 9464941952.

Review published March 2026

For manuscript enthusiasts, 2025 was dominated by the blockbuster exhibition displaying the calendar of the Très Riches Heures (and many related items) at the castle of Chantilly, just outside Paris. [...] Read More

The Burgeoning European Print Trade. The Distribution of Prints via the Plantin-Moretus Press of Antwerp.

By Karen Bowen and Dirk Imhof

London: Harvey Miller, an imprint of Brepols Publishers, Turnhout, 2025. 404 pp, 170 color illus., 8 tables. ISBN 978-1-915487-07-0.

Review published March 2026

After long domination of early Netherlandish art by the study of paintings, recent decades have inspired interest in another major innovation of the era, the medium of prints. Around midcentury in [...] Read More

Historians of Netherlandish Art Reviews

Book Reviews