Actors Carved and Cast: Netherlandish Sculpture of the Sixteenth Century

Painting has long dominated discussions of Netherlandish art. Yet in the sixteenth century sculpture was held in considerably higher regard than painting, especially in foreign lands. This beautifully illustrated book is the first comprehensive study of sixteenth-century Netherlandish sculpture, and it opens an important window onto the works and milieu of these artists.

Netherlanders dominated the sculptural world of northern Europe. They made the most prestigious tombs and altarpieces, alabaster reliefs, and boxwood collectibles for patrons throughout Iberia, France, and Central Europe. Even in Italy they were a formidable presence; the most famous sculptor in Europe in the second half of the sixteenth century was Giambologna, a Fleming who spent the greater part of his career in Florence. A great many of these artists immigrated to foreign courts--so many that the history of Netherlandish sculpture in the second half of the sixteenth century plays out largely abroad. Netherlandish carvers and casters relocated to what are today Austria, Denmark, England, France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, and Ukraine. Sculpture, more so than painting, was an essential tool in discourses of power.

Offering an essential new perspective on a fascinating period in art history, Actors Carved and Cast will appeal to scholars of sculpture and all those interested in Northern Renaissance art.

Ethan Matt Kavaler is Director of the Centre for Renaissance and Reformation Studies and Professor of Art History at the University of Toronto. He is the author of Pieter Bruegel: Parables of Order and Enterprise and Renaissance Gothic: Architecture and the Arts in Northern Europe, 1470-1540.