This publication presents research results of the Impulse for
research in the Belgian federal scientific institutes initiated by
the Belgian State, Federal Public Planning Service Science
Policy.
This publication is the joint endeavour of three
institutions.
- The Centre for the Study of Fifteenth-Century Painting in the
Southern Netherlands and the Bishopric of Liège has included
the publication in its prestigious series and has supported the
work thanks to the substantial financial sponsorship of a private
donor.
- The Royal Institute for Cultural Heritage (IRPA/KIK), which
initiated the research project in 2003, has funded all the
documentation and the English translation.
- The Léon Courtin-Marcelle Bouché Foundation,
administered by the King Baudouin Foundation has provided the
larger part of the production costs.
Surviving pre-Eyckian panel painting of around 1400 is in short
supply, but more remains than was thought. At present the list of
works to be studied includes some thirty objects in collections in
Belgium and elsewhere.
In the first volume ten objects, which in fact constitute the
majority of pre-Eyckian works in Belgian collections, are
documented as thoroughly as possible. Their interpretation is
underpinned not only by classic art historical analysis but also by
macro-photography, X-radiography, infrared photography and
reflectography, dendrochronological data and, in so far as was
feasible or justifiable, laboratory analysis of pigments and
binding media. The research has benefited to the full from the
expertise of the many specialists of the IRPA/KIK.
In volume two of this publication are a number of individual
contributions by ‘guest authors’. They cover diverse
topics, ranging from specific technical observations regarding one
noteworthy feature or group of works, to historical context,
peripheral iconographic phenomena, aspects of restoration, and the
exploration of Ghent’s archives by way of a case study.
"[...] this excellent publication, although still incomplete, offers a very useful starting point." (Jan Piet Filedt Kok, in The Burlington Magazine, CLII, February 2010, p. 102)
"L'expérience et le savoir-faire des auteurs conjugués à la particularité du corpus d'oeuvres étudiées garantissent à la fois la richesse et la pertinence des informations. D'autre part, la qualité de la présentation et des illustrations, la clarté des descriptions, quasiment pédagogiques pour certaines questions techniques, font que le néophyte en la matière trouvera autant d'intérêt et de plaisir à ce beau livre que les spécialistes." (Sophie Moreaux, dans CeROArt [en ligne], 4, 2009)