Mensaert, G.P.
Le peintre amateur et curieux, ou description générale des tableaux des plus habiles maîi, qui sont l’ornement des eglises, couvents, abbayes, prieuré & cabinets particuliers dans l’étendue des Pays-Bas Autrichiens. Première partie, contenant le Brabant et la Seigneurie de Malines (Second partie, contenant la Flandre, le Hainaut, Namur. &.).
Bruxelles, P. de Bast 1763 (both volumes).
Full Description
8vo. 2 vols in 1. Engraved frontispiece, (6) + 283 + (1)pp; (2) + 144 + (8)pp. Contemporary mottled calf, gilt spine. No ownership inscription or bookplate, but from the library of Michael Jaffé (1923-1997), Director of the Fitzwilliam Museum and authority on the painter Rubens.
Only edition of this excellent book by the Flemish artist Guillaume Pierre Mensaert (1711- after 1777), providing a reliable guide to the paintings and sculptures in every principal religious building in the Austrian Netherlands (present-day Belgium), together with information on similar works of art held in private collections. The first volume is devoted to works of art in Brussels, Malines, Antwerp and Louvain, while the second volume lists items in Ghent, Bruges, Namur and in other neighbouring towns. The second volume also contains a dialogue between a personification of painting and a student (pp 95-119), and an address by the author to his readers (pp 121-144), in which he comments intelligently on a number of specific Old Master paintings.