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166 Reviews life in true vernacular fashion. As to social purposes, lives of saints like Cecilia may have discouraged sexual violence. Local political priorities may have helped to determine the choice of candidates for hagiographical treatment. Russell Poole School ofEnglish and Media Studies Massey University Corley, Brigitte, Painting and Patronage in Cologne 1300-1500, Turnhout, Harvey Miller Publishers, 2000; cloth; pp. 344; 33 colour plates, 220 b/w illustrations; ISBN 1872501516. On a recent trip to Austria I was once again staggered by the wealth and beau of paintings produced in Northern Europe in the Early M o d e m period, works about which I formerly knew nothing. As someone w h o teaches courses on Northern art from this period I a m very aware of how little is available on paintings produced by artists who worked outside of the Netherlandish regions. While there is a lot of scholarship produced on this material, little is in English or in forms that are readily accessible to students. Brigitte Corley's book on Cologne-based artists is therefore an invaluable addition to this limited literature. Not only does she discuss a wide range of artists but also the text is generously and beautifully illustrated. Cologne, in particular, has retained or preserved a substantial number of works produced in the two centuries examined in this book. This preservation has been due to both the decline in wealth of the city itself and its remoteness from the iconoclastic fervor of religious reform. This is a very straightforward account. Corley has produced a chronological narrative of the history of painting in this city, beginning first with a discussion of the town itself, then patterns of patronage and the organization of workshops and the relationship between patrons and these workshops. She then outlines the development of painting from the 1300s to the end of the sixteenth century, dedicating chapters to both individual masters and groups of painters who worked in specific styles. A s she points out, although the archival material is rich in names and details about particular artists, it is almost impossible to connect names with particular works. Identification therefore is on stylistic grounds rather than by documented historical identities. This means, for example, that she challenges the equation of works held in Cologne and elsewhere with the name Stefan Lochner, re-ascribing them to the more anonymous 'Dombild Reviews 167 Master'. In the appendices she has included translations ofguild regulations and short biographies of the archbishops of Cologne and of the major patrons. She has also included a location handlist. Corley's focus is very much on questions of style and technique, and she draws on recent radiographic studies of many of these works to support her arguments on attribution. She has a breathtaking knowledge on the issues of the technology ofpainting, from both the composition of paint and the use of glazes to the use of under-drawing, as well as a keen eye for stylistic subtleties. Her identification of different studios using different punch marks in the gold background of various paintings is very compelling. She is also very interested in questions of attribution. The text isfilledwith her detailed understanding of this material. As is appropriate, she also draws on her wide-ranging knowledge of Northern art from this period, comparing these regional artists with painters and work from the Netherlands and elsewhere. It is a minor irritation, but it would have been useful for those of us less informed to have more of this comparative imagery reproduced. I am, however, aware of thefinancialdifficulties involved in the reproduction ofpaintings, which does limit what is possible. In her discussion of this material, Corley traces the impact of different influences that shaped the look of Cologne painting. These were wide-ranging, including Byzantine material brought there by the Greek retinue of the Empress Theophanu (d. 991), w h o was married to the Holy R o m a n Emperor. She also notes the influence of the Parisian manuscripts that m a y have come to the city through Dominican and Franciscan scholars and teacher. Italian stylistic developments also had an impact, as did the technical and stylistic innovations of such...

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