The Dutch Golden Age
All of the lecture notes are at: https://www.shafe.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/p16-The-Dutch-Golden-Age.key.pdf.
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The Dutch Golden Age spanned the 17th century and it was a time when the newly united Seven Provinces became the wealthiest nation in Europe. Having become independent from Spain following the Thirty Years War the Dutch excelled in trading, science and the arts.
The wealth of the Dutch Republic grew rapidly as a result of its trading links around the world supported by a navy of 2,000 ships, larger than the British and French navies combined.
As a result of the Republics openness and tolerance it attracted intellectuals from all over Europe and despite its small population it became the leading scientific, military and cultural power in Europe until the Year of Disaster, 1672, when its power started to gradually decline.
The Dutch Golden Age coincided with the Baroque period in Italy but the tolerant, hard working Dutch culture led to a very different style of painting. In the south the Flemish region was still controlled by the Spanish and this is where Peter Paul Rubens and Anthony van Dyck flourished in Antwerp. Rembrandt was the most successful in the commercial centre Amsterdam and Vermeer and Pieter de Hooch worked in Delft. The growing wealth of the Dutch traders and the Dutch East India Company created a new class of wealthy tradesmen who commissioned works of art.
The earliest great artist of the period was Peter Paul Rubens (1577–1640) and he broke away from the Italian style to create a new style that combined the energy and excitement of the baroque with the naturalism and intenseness of the north. Rubens most important pupil was Anthony van Dyck who became court painter to Charles I in England and one of the great portrait painters of the period.
Many genres of painting flourished including still life produced in exquisite detail by artists such as Clara Peters. One dramatic episode during the period was tulip mania that was illustrated by A Satire of Tulip Mania by Jan Brueghel the Younger (ca. 1640). One later artist of still life was Rachel Ruysch who became famous for her precise rendition of flowers.
The most popular form of painting was the portrait, which could take the form of an anonymous figure, a tronie, a family portrait or a group portrait. In Haarlem the most famous painter was Frans Hals whose free expression and relaxed characters made him one of the famous portrait artists of the period. Group and individual portraits were one of the most important sources of commissions for artists and another all known portrait painter was Judith Lester. However, the giant of the Dutch Golden Age was Rembrandt van Rijn whose deep, penetrating portraits and dynamic group portraits created a legacy that grew and grew over the centuries since.
Perhaps the most representative type of painting during this period were scenes of everyday life. Johannes Vermeer produced some of the most peaceful yet intense representations of everyday life. More homely, comedic and rowdy scenes of everyday life were produced by Nicolaes Maes, Pieter de Hooch and Jan Steen. A Jan Steen household became synonymous with familiar everyday sins of gluttony, sloth and lust.
The other great defining genre of the age was landscape and the master was Jacob van Ruisdael who created a vision of the Dutch nation’s open landscape. The other artist who captured the vast open landscape and sky was Aelbert Cuyp.