“excellent … The chances are that even in Dutch universities, this translation will become the primary point of access for students of early modern Netherlandish art in the Low Countries.”
Koenraad Jonckheere, Ghent University. In: Historians of Netherlandish Art Reviews, September 2023.

“Walter Melion is the ideal scholar, if not the only scholar, one would want to produce an English-language edition of Karel van Mander’s foundational treatise on the art of painting. From the rich and erudite introduction to the lively and eminently readable translation, this book — an invaluable resource for future scholarship — at last brings one of the key art-theoretical texts of the early modern Netherlands to a wider audience.”
Marisa Bass, Yale University

“Walter Melion’s superlative translation of Karel van Mander’s Foundation of the Noble, Free Art of Painting is cause for celebration, bringing us at long last an authoritative English critical edition of this singularly influential text. With deep erudition and sensitivity to Van Mander’s interconnected literary and artistic preoccupations, Melion reveals anew the originality of the great Flemish painter-poet and the ongoing salience of his work today.”
Celeste Brusati, University of Michigan