Images of Familial Intimacy in Eastern and Western Art offers a comparative art and socio-historical analysis of selected images of familial intimacy in Asia and Europe from the pre-modern era to the present day based on an examination of the value systems and expectations existing at the time in the regions in which the works were created. A wide variety of images are discussed ranging from family portraits and depictions of the home in seventeenth-century Dutch genre paintings, ukiyoe prints and fusuma sliding wall panels of the Edo period, to familial images made after the Korean War of 1950-53, providing the reader with a rare insight into the evolution East and West of the cultural norms and customs impacting on the family and personal space.

This book discusses an important theme in art history - artistic emulation that emphasizes the exchange between Flemish and Dutch art in the seventeenth century. Since the Middle Ages, copying has been perceived as an important step in artistic training. Originality, on the other hand, has been considered an indispensable hallmark of great works of art since the Renaissance. Therefore, in the seventeenth century, ambitious painters frequently drew inspiration from other artists' works, attempting to surpass them in various aspects of aesthetic appeal. Drawing on this perspective, this book considers the problems of imitation, emulation, and artistic rivalry in seventeenth-century Netherlandish art. It primarily focuses on Rubens and Rembrandt, but also discusses other masters like van Dyck and Hals. It particularly results in expanding the extant body of knowledge in relation to Rubens's influence on Rembrandt and Hals. Moreover, it reveals certain new aspects of Rubens and Rembrandt as work-shop masters - collaboration with specialists, use of oil sketches, and teaching methods to pupils for example.