Propria Belgarum laus: Domenicus Lampsonius and the Pictorum Aliquot Celebrium Germaniae Inferioris Effigies

Abstract

This paper focuses on a detailed analysis of the Pictorum aliquot celebrium germaniae inferioris effigies (Antwerp: Quatuor Ventorum, 1572). The book contains 23 engravings representing portraits of Nordic 15th and 16th painters, each accompanied by Latin verses composed by the Flemish humanist Domenicus Lampsonius. The emphasis of the paper lies both on the confrontation between the Lampsonian architecture and the schemes proposed by Vasari, and on the Flemish humanist’s effort to build an autochthonous history of art (Lampsonius stresses the national idioms of portrait and landscape, proposes autonomous artistic lineages and searches to create a self-referent transalpine memory). The paper offers, still, a critical translation (from the original Latin to Portuguese) of Lampsonius’ poems..