The Erotics of Looking: Early Modern Netherlandish Art presents a collection of provocative essays that explore the material qualities of early Dutch art to reveal ways new forms of visual imagery solicit a beholder's involvement. Explores how descriptive pictures during the early modern Dutch art period operated as social things and were designed to pleasurably engage the eye and prompt discussion and debate Shows how these works potentially raised ethical and political questions about the interconnectedness of engaging with pictures and the material world Represents a major contribution to the field of early modern Netherlandish art and to general debates about the status and functions of descriptive art Features essays addressing a variety of aspects of the field, from the historiography of Dutch art to closely attentive readings of particular works Crafts an original theoretical framework by applying recent insights about the making of early modern publics and the study of material things to the analysis of Netherlandish art