Tempest and shipwreck in Dutch and Flemish art : convention, rhetoric, and interpretation /

In this fine monograph based upon his 1984 dissertation, Goedde provides through iconographic and formal discussions of tempest and shipwreck in Netherlandish art; furthermore, he establishes the Classical, Renaissance, and Baroque traditions in art and literature for such imagery. Recent investigators in art history have focused on the realism, fantasy, or allegory of sea and landscape (H.D. Brumble, R.H. Fuchs, W. Reznicek); on the moral content in emblems of sea imagery (W. De Jongh); and the works of artists who specialized in seascape (M. Russell on C.H. Vroom, J. Walsh on Porcellis) in order to interpret these images in their artistic and cultural contexts. Goedde synthesizes much of this material and collects additional pictorial and literary references to make his survey a comprehensive and authoritative one. General issues discussed include humanity's place in nature (struggle, salvation, and fortune); realism and convention in Dutch art; and multiplicity of meaning in the representation of the sea. Goedde successfully relates word and image for the mutual illumination of both, and thus participates in a current development in literary and art historical research. Among his significant contributions is an analysis of ekphrasis and pictorial tempests. Of fundamental value to art historians. -A. Golahny, Lycoming College