The Sublime in the Visual Culture of the Seventeenth-Century Dutch Republic

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Stijn Bussels (Leiden University, Leiden) Bram Van Oostveldt (Ghent University, Belgium)

The Sublime in the Visual Culture of the Seventeenth-Century Dutch Republic

Stijn Bussels (Leiden University, Leiden), Bram Van Oostveldt (Ghent University, Belgium)

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Paperback

Forthcoming
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English

Routledge
30 July 2025

The Arts: General & Reference; History of Art & Design Styles; European history; Early modern history: c 1450 to c 1700; Social & cultural history

Series: Routledge Research in Art History

Contrary to what Kant believed about the Dutch (and their visual culture) as “being of an orderly and diligent position” and thus having no feeling for the sublime, this book argues that the sublime played an important role in seventeenth-century Dutch visual culture.

By looking at different visualizations of exceptional heights, divine presence, political grandeur, extreme violence, and extraordinary artifacts, the authors demonstrate how viewers were confronted with the sublime, which evoked in them a combination of contrasting feelings of awe and fear, attraction and repulsion. In studying seventeenth-century Dutch visual culture through the lens of notions of the sublime, we can move beyond the traditional and still widespread views on Dutch art as the ultimate representation of everyday life and the expression of a prosperous society in terms of calmness, neatness, and order.

The book will be of interest to scholars working in art history, visual culture, architectural history, and cultural history.

The Open Access version of this book, available at www.taylorfrancis.com, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives (CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0) 4.0 International license. Funded by Ghent University.

By: Stijn Bussels (Leiden University Leiden), Bram Van Oostveldt (Ghent University, Belgium)
Imprint: Routledge
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Height: 246mm, Width: 174mm,
Weight: 453g
ISBN: 9781032375885
ISBN 10: 1032375884
Series: Routledge Research in Art History
Pages: 200
Publication Date: 30 July 2025
Audience: College/higher education , Primary
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Forthcoming

Stijn P.M. Bussels is Professor of Art History and Head of the Department of Art History at Leiden University Centre of the Arts in Society. Bram Van Oostveldt is Associate Professor at the Department of Art, Music and Theatre Studies at Ghent University.