The latest issue of Simiolus has appeared. It presents the debut of Philip Muijtjens, the laureate of our 2024 Haboldt-Mutters Prize for young art historians, revealing a previously unknown source on Rogier van der Weyden’s famous yet enigmatic Justice panels in Brussels. Incredible but true, it also welcomes the very first contribution to Simiolus by Bernhard Ridderbos, an absolute authority on early Netherlandish painting, who addresses fundamental questions regarding Hugo van der Goes’s oeuvre in response to the recent exhibition in Berlin. Victor Schmidt corrects a long-standing misidentification in a Lucas van Leyden print, Elizabeth Mattison presents an unknown inventory of the Liège Prince-Bishop Érard de la Marck’s silver collection, and Lara Yeager-Crasselt and Suzanne Baverez elucidate Bentveughel Simon Ardé’s career in Rome. Finally, Tessel Bauduin reflects on the particular position of Surrealism in the Netherlands – a contribution that neatly coincides with the movement’s centenary, as well as with our desire to publish more essays on nineteenth- and twentieth-century art.
Finally, this issue sees the reintroduction of what used to be one of Simiolus’s characteristic features: the critical review. Resisting a seemingly ubiquitous trend towards what has recently been aptly referred to as “the gradual neutralisation of the critical review”, Simiolus continues to take up the task of scrutinising important new publications, not merely and dutifully summarising them, but placing them in their historiographical context and carefully weighing their claims. Thus, Jean Michel Massing reviews Paul Holberton’s monumental book on Arcadia, while both Frans Grijzenhout and Frances Suzman Jowell comment critically on the Rijksmuseum’s otherwise unanimously lauded 2023 Vermeer exhibition.
Articles in the current issue (45-3/4)
The Justice Panels by Rogier van der Weyden: A New Source on Their International Fame
Philip Muijtjens
Hugo van der Goes: Questions About His Artistic Development
Bernhard Ridderbos
The Long Shadow of Adam Bartsch: Lucas van Leyden’s Engraving B. 119
Victor M. Schmidt
A Bishop Among Princes: Social Networks and Érard de la Marck’s Collection of Gold and Silver
Elizabeth Rice Mattison
The Bentvueghels and a Brussels Network: Rediscovering the Life of Simon Ardé (c. 1596–1638)
Suzanne Baverez and Lara Yeager-Crasselt
Little-Known but Persistent: Surrealism in the Netherlands
Tessel M. Bauduin
Review of Paul Holberton, A History of Arcadia in Art and Literature
Jean Michel Massing
Reviews of Pieter Roelofs and Gregor J.M. Weber (eds.), Vermeer and Gregor J.M. Weber, Johannes Vermeer: Faith, Light and Reflection
Frans Grijzenhout
Vermeer at the Rijksmuseum 2023: Thoré-Bürger Airbrushed Out
Frances Suzman Jowell
