1920s Decorative and Illustrated Volume Set, Max Jakob Friedländer's Die Altniederländische Malerei (Early Netherlandish Painting) - 11 Books

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Title: Die Altniederländische Malerei (Early Netherlandish Painting).
Author: Max Jakob Friedländer.
Place: Berlin, Germany.
Publisher: Bei Paul Cassirer Verlag.
Publication … Read more Title: Die Altniederländische Malerei (Early Netherlandish Painting).
Author: Max Jakob Friedländer.
Place: Berlin, Germany.
Publisher: Bei Paul Cassirer Verlag.
Publication date: 1924.
Language: German
Printer: A. Wohlfeld, Magdeburg.

Description: Total Pp. 1924. (Fo). 11 of 14 volume complete set. Vol. 1. Die Van Eyck - Petrus Christus (170 p., Plates I-LXXI), Vol. 2. Rogier Van Der Weyden - Der Meister Von Flemalle (158 p., I-LXXIX), Vol. 3 (absent), Vol. 4. Hugo van Der Goes (166 p., I-LXXX), Vol. 5. Geertgen Und Bosch (168 p., I-LXXVIII), Vol. 6. Memling Und Gerard David (179 p., I-CI), Vol. 7. Quentin Massys (165 p., I-XCVII), Vol. 8. Jan Gossart - B. Van Orley (198 p., I-XCVII), Vol. 9. Joos Van Cleve Jan Provost Joachim Patenier (188 p., I-CIII), Vol. 10. Lucas Van Leyden Jan Mostaert C. Engelbrechtsz (152 p., I-XCIV), Vol. 11. Die Antwerpener Manieristen - Ysenbrant (175 p., XCV), Vol. 12. Pieter Coeck - Jan Van Scorel (239 p., I-LXXXIII), Vols. 13 & 14 (absent). Publishers 1/4 navy blue cloth hardcovers, antique white paper covered boards, red/black ink printed title page, large-print text, profusely illustrated full page plates, captioned at bottom, silk ribbon bookmarks, at rear of each volume, fine cloth tips at board corners. Folded-in front board: a folded Sample illustration of one of the 144 separate full-color reproductions that accompany the portfolios (The Marriage of Giovanni Arnolfini and Giovanna Cenami by Jan Van Eyck), pamphlets; (1) about this work, (2) The Frick Collection.

Dimensions: . 75 (9.5 overall) W x 9.25 D x 12 H inches.

About the author and works: Max Jakob Friedländer (1867–1958) was a German museum curator and art historian. He was a specialist in Early Netherlandish painting and the Northern Renaissance, who volunteered at the Kupferstichkabinett Berlin in 1891 under Friedrich Lippmann. On Lippmann's recommendation, Wilhelm von Bode took him on as his assistant in 1896 for the paintings division. He was appointed deputy director under Bode in 1904 and became director himself from 1924 to 1932, working on his history From Van Eyck to Bruegel and the 14-volume (printed in 16, with supplements) survey Early Netherlandish Painting (present). In 1933 he was dismissed as a "non-Aryan" and in 1939 had to move to Amsterdam as a result of being a Jew. He attained the rank and title of geheimrat (privy councillor) under the German Empire. He also donated several works to the collection and worked in the art trade as an advisor, to Hermann Göring among others.

Friedländer's approach to art history was essentially that of a connoisseur. He gave priority to a critical reading based on sensitivity rather than on grand artistic and or aesthetic theories. He described it as follows:

If the determination of the authorship of an individual work of art most certainly is not the ultimate and highest task of artistic erudition; even if it were no path to the goal: nevertheless, without a doubt, it is a school for the eye, since there is no formulation of a question which forces us to penetrate so deeply the essence of an individual work as that concerning the identity of the author. The individual work, rightly understood, teaches us what a comprehensive knowledge universal artistic activity is incapable of teaching us.

During his lifetime he took high quality photographs of artwork wherever he travelled. His personal archive with approximately 15,000 photos and reproductions of 15th- and 16th-century paintings from the North and South Netherlands are often accompanied with notes including such things as the provenance, attribution, relative condition, and location of the paintings. The majority of his work has been transcribed and digitised in the RKDimages database of the Dutch National Institute of Art History (RKD) and forms an important open access archive for art historians. See less