However, Ernst van Alphen argues that it is the violence done to the viewer that needs to be addressed if we are to understand how these works function.
Focusing on national identity in the Netherlands, France, and Britian, The Nation Made Real offers an original interpretation of the role of visual art in the making of nations in Western Europe.
The field covered by this volume includes the work and influence of foreign-born painters such as Holbein and Van Dyck as well as native masters from Gower and Milliard to Gainsborough, Stubbs, and Sandby.