Gerard de Lairesse and his Painted Heavens
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A01=Margriet van Eikema Hommes
Andries de Graeff
Author_Margriet van Eikema Hommes
Category=AFC
Category=AGB
Category=NHD
ceiling paintings
Disaster Year 1672
Dutch Golden Age
eq_art-fashion-photography
eq_bestseller
eq_history
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
forthcoming
Gerard de Lairesse
interior decoration
Product details
- ISBN 9789463724876
- Dimensions: 240 x 280mm
- Publication Date: 01 Nov 2026
- Publisher: Amsterdam University Press
- Publication City/Country: NL
- Product Form: Hardback
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In 1672, when the Dutch Republic was under simultaneous attack by four foreign armies, Gerard de Lairesse created a magnificent three-part ceiling painting for one of the main protagonists of this Disaster Year—the powerful former burgomaster of Amsterdam, Andries de Graeff. Technical examination has revealed that Lairesse repeatedly altered his composition and in no fewer than four successive stages, he changed, removed or added figures and objects.
In this book, Margriet van Eikema Hommes, in search of an explanation for this ceiling painting’s intriguing origins, investigates its meaning and purpose. The painter and his patron prove to have been jointly responsible for the iconography, which they repeatedly updated to reflect military and political events in the Disaster Year and the dramatic twists of fate in De Graeff’s own life.
This beautifully illustrated book not only situates the work within its cultural and historical context but also offers an in-depth examination of Lairesse’s painting technique and the way he meticulously designed his ceiling pieces in close dialogue with the architecture of the room.
In this book, Margriet van Eikema Hommes, in search of an explanation for this ceiling painting’s intriguing origins, investigates its meaning and purpose. The painter and his patron prove to have been jointly responsible for the iconography, which they repeatedly updated to reflect military and political events in the Disaster Year and the dramatic twists of fate in De Graeff’s own life.
This beautifully illustrated book not only situates the work within its cultural and historical context but also offers an in-depth examination of Lairesse’s painting technique and the way he meticulously designed his ceiling pieces in close dialogue with the architecture of the room.
Margriet van Eikema Hommes is an art historian specializing in historical painting techniques and Dutch seventeenth- and eighteenth-century painting ensembles. She is a senior researcher at the Cultural Heritage Agency of the Netherlands.
