Czére Andrea szerk.: A Szépművészeti Múzeum közleményei (Budapest, 2008)

NEW PUBLICATIONS - ANNAMÁRIA GOSZTOLA: István Németh, Deceptive Mirrors of Life. Dutch Genre Painting in the Age of Rembrandt

Képfilozófiák are not pictorial representations of the most common events of everyday life but rather thoughts they were preoccupied with. He also explains why artists preferred to convey their messages in the form of everyday scenes close to reality instead of painting allegories. A purposefully selected work from the Old Masters' Gallery of the Museum of Fine Arts serves as a starting point in the majority of the chapters, while the explanations are supported by works from foreign collections on the same or similar theme, and, where necessary, he makes allusions to contemporaneous emblems, theatrical plays and literary works. Mthough the author notes that he was unable to include all the themes dealt with by Dutch genre painting within the given constraints of the genre he chose, we should have some reservations about his statement, that "the genre painters took no interest in the busy everyday life of the citizens". The author gives preference to those themes he regarded as interesting and special, and the selected works are mainly dominated by love, eroticism and piquancy. Pictures depicting more "boring" themes, such as domestic virtues, various trades, and the peaceful and intimate moments of family life are entirely missing from the book. The volume contains an introduction, ten chapters, thirty-three black-and-white pictures inserted in the text and a conclusion, followed by an impressive bibliography, a list of pictures and twenty-seven colour reproductions of mostly poor quality. Ml in all, the book is flowing, easy-to-read and entertaining, while it is written in an extremely informative way, satisfying the requirements of a high academic standard. Annamária Gosztola NOTE ' The publication of the book was sponsored by the National Cultural Fund, the Ministry of Education and Culture, and the Museum of Fine Arts.