In this issue as in the last, JHNA is delighted to publish articles based on papers from the Historians of Netherlandish Art Conference held in Amsterdam in May 2010.
Two of these articles focus on complementary gift giving. Michael Zell uses the sociological paradigm Actor Network Theory to help explain the significance and workings of some of Rembrandt’s relationships with patrons and fellow connoisseurs. Virginie Spenlé discusses an exotic cup owned by Count Johan Maurits of Nassau-Siegen, first as an example of gift giving in diplomacy, and then as an example of a change in connotation once it entered the collection of Alexander von Humboldt. Much further afield, Renée Kistemaker also contributes to the history of collections, focusing on tensions in Amsterdam just prior to the opening of the new Rijksmuseum, when city-oriented factions sparred with those who preferred to see municipal art and historical artifacts in the national museum.
Els Stronks’s essay developed from her ongoing investigation into the production of illustrated Dutch literature. (It was not presented at the HNA Conference.) She argues that Dutch Catholic emblem books were produced in the same social and cultural isolation as clandestine Catholic church art.
Once again for this issue, we want to acknowledge the work of Cindy Edwards, our excellent copyeditor; Heidi Eyestone, the Visual Resources Librarian of Carleton College, for her help with images; Nicole Conti, Mallory Monsma, and Libby Isenstein, for their formatting skills and eagle eyes; Rebecca Parker Brienen, HNA Treasurer, for assisting with webhost migration issues; our webmaster Russ Coon, for all his efforts on behalf of JHNA; and also the financial support of Carleton College and the University of Texas, Austin.
JHNA is archived by Portico, an electronic service initiated by JSTOR and supported by the Mellon Foundation, Ithaka, and the Library of Congress. Our membership in CrossRef allows us to register our articles, each with a Digital Object Identifier (DOI), so that libraries and other organizations can find these articles and create links to them. We are partnered with H.W.Wilson Company for indexing.
To gain the widest possible audience, JHNA offers this journal free of charge—not just to HNA members but to everyone. Many members responded generously to the original fund-raising campaign that allowed us to set up the journal. You will find their names under Contributions.
We encourage you to consider JHNA as a venue for your own publications. With your help, JHNA is becoming one of the premier journals of Netherlandish art. The next formal deadline for submission of articles is August 1, 2011, though we welcome submissions at any time.
The next issue of JHNA (Winter 2012) is already taking shape, with two technical studies of the works of Cornelis Engebrechtsz, Lucas van Leyden, and Aertgen van Leyden. These linked articles resulted from research for the University of Amsterdam’s Impact of Oil project.
Editorial Board
Alison M. Kettering, Editor-in-Chief, William R. Kenan Professor of Art History, Carleton College
Molly Faries, Associate Editor, Professor Emerita, Department of the History of Art, Indiana University
Jeffrey Chipps Smith, Associate Editor, Kay Fortson Chair in European Art, University of Texas, Austin
Advisory Board
Ann J. Adams, Associate Professor of the History of Art and Architecture, University of California Santa Barbara
Wayne E. Franits, Professor, Department of Art and Music Histories, Syracuse University