PAINTINGS OF THE ROMANESQUE SCHOOLS BEFORE
1800 IN PROMINENT COLLECTIONS
An Illustrated Comprehensive Catalogue
Published by Gerhard Holland
Volume 1: Paintings of the Romanesque Schools before 1800 at the Städel
Including the English Old Master paintings as well as a supplement to the
Netherlandish paintings
Edited by Jochen Sander and Bodo Brinkmann
250 pp., size: 24 x 30 cm, with 118 full-page colour plates and 78 half-page
black-and-white illustrations.
Cloth bound with a full-colour dust jacket
ISBN 3-88284-007-2 (English edition)
ISBN 3-88284-004-8 (German edition)
Among the Italian, French and Spanish paintings at the Städel it is by number
and significance the Italians who dominate. From the late thirteenth century to
the end of the eighteenth century, there are important works by the Lorenzetti,
Fra Angelico, by Mantegna, Botticelli, Bellini and Titian, by Perugino, Rosso,
Bronzino and Parmigianino, by Moretto, Moroni and Tintoretto, by Reni,
Giordano, Canaletto and Bellotto, by the Tiepolo and Batoni. Though Spaniards
and the French are in number not so strong represented, concerning the quality
at hand they are equals of their Italian colleagues: Velazquez, Murillo and
Goya are to be named here but it is above all the magnificent group of pictures
by Poussin, Lorrain, Chardin and Watteau, which constitute highlights within
the Galerie.
The present work, the first volume of the series "Paintings
of the Romanesque Schools before 1800 in Important Collections. Complete
Illustrated Catalogue", presents for the first time the Städel's complete
inventory of Italian, French, and Spanish paintings before 1800 in an
accurately illustrated publication. As the third and last volume dedicated to
the Städel's Old Masters (after the Netherlandish Paintings before 1800 and the
German Paintings before 1800), this book contains as well the few examples of
English Old Masters in the Städel and a supplement to the Netherlandish volume.
This work contains the paintings in the possession of the Städelsches
Kunstinstitut, the Städelscher Museumsverein, and the Städtische Galerie, as
well as the paintings on permanent loan from the Historisches Museum Frankfurt.
Of the nearly 190 pictures, almost all of those permanently on display in the
Galerie, augmented with a selection of important paintings from the repository,
are reproduced in 116 full-page colour plates. The rest of the 76 half-page
black-and-white illustrations reproduce works in storage that are not
accessible to the public. In the process of (re-)photographing the paintings,
their measurements were checked, and their provenance was systematized with the
help of the Getty Provenance Index, and attributions were made consistent with
the latest research. A bibliography with references to the painters as well as
the paintings facilitates the reader's access to all scholarship concerning the
works. First and foremost, however, this book serves as an invitation to view
this comprehensive series of reproductions: an invitation extended to the
interested visitor and the art lover as much as to the art historian in search
of specific information. Similar in conception and layout are the volumes
dedicated to Netherlandish painting and German painting before 1800 in the
Städel.
The authors are Jochen Sander, director of the department of
painting, and Bodo Brinkmann, curator of Old Netherlandish and Old German
painting in the Städel.