A vast body of scholarly work has treated the different aspects of the Hispano-Flemish connection ever since Max Friedlander's claim that the Iberian Peninsula was a destination for Netherlandish art (1935). Jan Karel Steppe (1918–2009), to whom this volume is dedicated, can be counted among the pioneering scholars of that notion. The book is the result of a conference held in 2016 by Illuminare (KU Leuven), which holds and is in the process of indexing Steppe's research archive. Its scope, as stated in the introduction, is specifically to expand this field of vision by highlighting a wide range of less studied cases and to offer “a more satisfied view of the cultural dynamics between the Netherlands and Spain in the Renaissance period” (3).

After a eulogy chapter on Steppe by Paul Vandenbroeck, the book opens with Raymond Fagel's mapping of the cultural and artistic agents involved in reciprocal relationships between the Netherlands and Spain. Following is Nicola Jennings's case study of a Jewish convert who collaborated with a Northern craftsman on a Netherlandish modeled retable, which conveys the central role of Jews and conversos in salvation history. From this specific example, the editors move to Muñiz Petralanda, Barrio Olando, and Berasain Salvarredi's broad-view article on Flemish carved altarpieces in Spain. The sculptor Jean Mone links the following two chapters, by Ethan Matt Kavaler and Krista De Jonge, respectively. Kavaler's essay argues for Spain's influence on the Netherlands by demonstrating Mone's role in the Flemish adaptation of the antique manner, from a political discourse influenced by art to one influencing politics. In this sense, De Jonge's following essay, discussing the milieu of Mone and Ordoñez, is a good example of the thoughtful and clever ordering of the volume: focusing on the artistic network mechanism, De Jonge showcases the artistic exchange, specifically architectural, between Spain and the Netherlands in the early decades of the sixteenth century.

One of the more intriguing questions raised concerns the fate of these complex networks and exchanges during the revolt of the Spanish Netherlands. Stephanie Porras tracks the continuance of the artistic and merchant routes and key intermediaries between Antwerp, Spain, and New Spain through the work of Maerten de Vos. Two of the intermediaries who established these routes are Arias Montano and Plantin, the protagonists of Dirk Imhof's following chapter, which showcases the merchants’ strategies. Both are also the protagonists of another article, by Koenraad Van Cleempoel, on mathematical and astronomic instruments and the transmission of artisanal knowledge from the Netherlands to Spain.

Five articles are dedicated to collectors and collections: Iain Buchman on the Duke of Alba's tapestry acquisitions; Elena Vázquez Dueñas on the Gevaras family collections; Noelia Garcia Perez on female patronage of Mencia de Mendoza's portrait gallery; and Eduardo Lamas-Delgado on the Dukes of Medina Sidonia. Antonia Putzger offers yet another methodological perspective to the collector's and patron's interest and agenda in Netherlandish art. Through the material history of Rogier van de Weyden's Deposition of Christ, its copies and places of display, she looks at the artwork's reception and the concept of provenance as acts of appropriation by the Habsburg court. Finally, Abigail D. Newman's closing article poses an intriguing supposition that in the absence of guilds or art academies in Spain, Spanish art-writers not only contributed to the promotion of artists’ status but also to their sense of collegiality, collaboration, and community.

As some of the most prominent research in the field is not in English, the publication of this English-language anthology will, as the editors remark, contribute to and support the growing interest in Hispano-Flemish art. Hence, the choice not to translate some of the Spanish citations is questionable. Notwithstanding, Netherlandish Art and Luxury Goods is a magnificently produced, richly illustrated, and carefully edited volume that provides a wide scope of case studies and subjects, while succeeding in outlining some central concerns. Moreover, the book offers the reader a progressive, linear reading by thematic order and continuity between the different chapters. This, I feel, is no small matter in an anthology, and is indeed one to appreciate.