Corporate Splendour

"Flemish portraiture produced before 1800 has received considerable attention in publications and exhibitions over the last two centuries. Yet one sub-genre has been consistently neglected, the corporate or civic group portrait, which portrays not family members or friends but groups of people who were active in the civic life of their society. The aim of this book is to fill that gap in the art-historical literature....This book deals with civic group portraits painted in the Southern Netherlands, and in the historic Duchy of Brabant in particular, between 1585 and 1800."--Introduction, p. 17.