Van Dyck: The Anatomy of Portraiture
Anthony van Dyck (1599–1641), Queen Henrietta Maria with Jeffery Hudson, 1633. Oil on canvas, 86 1/4 × 53 1/16 in. (219.1 × 134.8 cm). National Gallery of Art, Washington; Samuel H. Kress Collection.
From Yale University Press comes a gorgeous museum exhibition catalog—Van Dyck: The Anatomy of Portraiture. The 320-page volume features a stunning array of illustrations celebrating the work of Sir Anthony van Dyck, the Flemish Baroque artist renowned for his portrait work for seventeenth-century royals and other luminaries.
Published in association with the Frick Collection, the book includes two essays, more than 100 detailed catalog entries, a complete bibliography, and a scholarly index.
Designer Susan Marsh, who specializes in scholarly art books and catalogs, chose MVB Verdigris® for the cover and interior typography (set by Matt Mayerchak). “Aside from how beautiful and stylistically appropriate it is, I was grateful for the legibility because the manuscript was at least a third longer than expected, but I had to fit it in the original page count,” Marsh said.
Normally, Marsh would have used a larger point size and more leading in the catalog entries, but was happy with the appearance of those texts thanks to Verdigris’ compact design.
Due to the scholarly nature of the Van Dyck catalog, Marsh made extensive use of Verdigris’ OpenType features, artfully weaving in the family’s small caps, ligatures, proportional and tabular old-style figures, superior figures, fractions, and diacritical marks.
“Verdigris Pro is a perfect typeface for this book,” Marsh said. “The beautiful display sizes mirror the elegance of Van Dyck’s paintings, while the text weights are lovely, sturdy, and very legible at small sizes.”
Anthony van Dyck (1599–1641), Cesare Scaglia Adoring the Virgin and Child, ca. 1634–35. Oil on canvas, 42 × 47 1/4 in. (106.7 × 120 cm). The National Gallery, London.
Anthony van Dyck (1599–1641), Frans Snyders, ca. 1620. Oil on canvas, 56 1/8 × 41 1/2 in. (142.5 × 105.4 cm). The Frick Collection; Henry Clay Frick Bequest.
MVB Verdigris® in Van Dyck exhibition catalog text settings.
1 Comment on “Van Dyck: The Anatomy of Portraiture”
Awwwww Yisssss another Verdigris use! Most typefaces wear out in my eyes after 3 to 5 months, and Verdigris is the only one that has still managed to spark charm up to this day.