CODART, Dutch and Flemish art in museums worldwide

The Olomouc Museum of Art brings an exhibition of Dutch painting from the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. With a certain exaggeration, the exhibition is co-authored by one of the artists of the time – Karel van Mander (1548-1606). As the author of Het Schilder-boeck (The Book of Painters), first published in 1604, he provided key information about the lives and works of his predecessors and contemporaries.

Visitors will see the top works of the Dutch Renaissance from Europe’s leading museums and galleries by artists such as Rogier van der Weyden, Jan Gossaert, Quentin Matsys, Jan Brueghel the Elder, Jan van Scorel, Frans Floris, Bartholomeus Spranger, Cornelis van Haarlem and other artists mentioned by Van Mander and often known thanks to him. However, this will not only be a showcase of important authors, but also a probe into the social, cultural and literary history of the early modern period, sketched with the help of excerpts from book texts and graphic displays.

Karel van Mander gained experience in Italy in his youth, but on his return, like thousands of other non-Catholics, he was forced to leave his native Spanish Netherlands (now Belgium) for exile in the newly forming Protestant United Provinces of the Netherlands. In the prosperous city of Haarlem he then became one of the most important movers and influencers of intellectual and cultural life. In addition to painting, he translated from French, wrote poems, songs and plays. However, he is best known as the ‘Dutch Vasari’, as he was inspired to write the Book of Painters by the Italian painter and architect Giorgio Vasari (1511-1574), who published an encyclopedia of the best local painters, sculptors and architects of Italy in 1550.

The exhibition is accompanied by a representative, richly illustrated catalogue presenting the Book of Painters and its author Karel van Mander in detail. In addition, it includes medallions and analyses of selected works by 24 Dutch and Upper German painters.