Art, Honor and Success in The Dutch Republic

Focusing on the interrelationship between Jacob van Loo's art, honor, and career, this book argues that Van Loo's lifelong success and unblemished reputation were by no means incompatible, as art historians have long assumed, with his specialization in painting nudes and his conviction for manslaughter. Van Loo's iconographic specialty - the nude - allowed his clientele to present themselves as judges of beauty and display their mastery of decorum, while his portraiture perfectly expressed his clients' social and political ambitions. Van Loo's honor explains why his success lasted a lifetime, whereas that of Rembrandt, Frans Hals, and Vermeer did not. Taking an interdisciplinary approach, this book reinterprets the manslaughter case as a sign that Van Loo's elite patrons recognized him as a gentleman and highly-esteemed artist. Uniquely, this book: - redefines Van Loo's place within, and contribution to, the Golden Age of Dutch painting, consistently discussing Van Loo in relation to his contemporaries; - demonstrates that honor was a precondition for artistic success; - allows new insight into the relation between honor, artistic success and socially acceptable behavior, particularly of artists in the Dutch Golden Age.