Slavery and the Invention of Dutch Art

Caroline Fowler is Starr Director of the Research and Academic Program at the Clark Institute. She is the author of The Art of Paper: From the Holy Land to the Americas and Drawing and the Senses: An Early Modern History.

Acknowledgments vii Introduction. Transubstantiation across Atlantic Worlds 1 1. Art Markets and Futures Speculation 22 2.Seascapes and Landscapes 34 3. Monuments and Architectural Painting 52 4. Domestic Interiors and Natural History 81 Conclusion. Historiography and Race 108 Notes 125 Bibliography 141 Index 159

"Slavery and the Invention of Dutch Art dives into unexploited visual and artistic material in the history of racial capitalism's beginnings at the time of Rembrandt. It is also a completely new interpretation of the objectification of the enslaved body by a Reformed religion of an imageless God. This major and refined perspective is made, for the first time, necessary and obvious by Caroline Fowler, who takes the cultural ramifications of racial slavery one step farther, thanks to the means of a bold and expanded art history." -- Anne Lafont, Professor of Art History, Ecole des hautes etudes en sciences sociales, Paris "The scholarly audience and the museum world have been waiting for a book like this for a long time. Given the shifting perspective in Old World heritage institutions on the place of slavery, racialization, and empire, there is a great need for Caroline Fowler's thorough theorization and reflection. An impressive book." -- Karwan Fatah-Black, author of * White Lies and Black Markets: Evading Metropolitan Authority in Colonial Suriname, 1650-1800 * "In this passionate and imaginative book Caroline Fowler offers important new accounts of canonical artists from the portraiture of Rembrandt to the interior scenes of Gerard ter Borch, Frans van Mieris, and Vermeer to the iconoclastic interiors of Pieter Jansz. Saenredam. Brilliant and original." -- Joseph Koerner, author of * Bosch and Bruegel: From Enemy Painting to Everyday Life *