This month Oud Holland opens its pages with a striking technical analysis and reconstruction of the cup of Veere – an exceptional fire-gilded silver ornamental piece from circa 1547-1548. Hanne Schonkeren now offers a new perspective on the circumstances of its creation in Antwerp, and identifies the anonymous Master with the lion head in a shield as the artist.

With Pieter Pourbus’ quintessential Last Supper of 1548 as a starting point, Bram de Klerck discusses the iconography of the theme in the context of Medieval and Renaissance imagery. Notably, the figure of Judas plays a pivotal role in some of these paintings and, conspicuously enough, also in the viewer’s personal experience of participation in the biblical story.

Finally, through a detailed analysis in conjunction with contemporary reviews, Joan Mut i Arbós reconstructs the late-nineteenth-century perspective on Alma-Tadema’s work. The question he poses is how Alma-Tadema’s contemporaries would have seen his work. With access to classical sources available at the time, two of his key paintings suddenly become social critiques of the wealthy class.

Summaries of all articles can be found on the Oud Holland website.

Oud Holland – Journal for Art of the Low Countries 2024-3

Hanne Schonkeren
Master with the lion head in a shield: A new attribution of the ornamental cup of Veere (c. 1547-1548)

Bram de Klerck
Trading places with the traitor: Pieter Pourbus (c. 1523-1584) and sixteenth-century Last Supper iconography

Joan Mut i Arbós
Lawrence Alma-Tadema and the nineteenth-century ‘period eye’: Classical sources for his Entrance of the theatre (1866) and An exedra (1869)

Oud Holland – Journal for Art of the Low Countries

The oldest surviving art-historical journal in the world is a Dutch periodical. From 1883 until now Oud Holland – Journal for Art of the Low Countries publishes scholarly articles about important archival finds and major art-historical discoveries. The scope of Oud Holland is art from the Low Countries from ca. 1400 to 1920. For more information and news about recent issues of Oud Holland, online reviews, subscriptions and information for authors, visit oudholland.rkd.nl.