NORTHERN EUROPE, 1600-1700 GARDNER CHAPTER 25-1 PP. 679-691
NORTHERN
EUROPE,
1600-1700GARDNER CHAPTER 25-1
PP. 679-691
BAROQUE ART IN THE NETHERLANDS
Dutch gain independence from Spain in late 16th century
Northern Netherlands gains official recognition as the Dutch Republic in 1648 -> Treaty of Westphalia
Economic prosperity
Bank of Amsterdam 1609
Amsterdam had highest per capita income in Europe
Prosperity + lack of absolute ruler = power of the urban patrician class of merchants and manufacturers
Dutch avidly collected landscapes, interior scenes, and still lifes -> these painting genres dealt directly with daily lives of the urban mercantile public, accounting for their appeal
Because of the prosperity of the Netherlands, the taste for collecting art spread not only among aristocrats, but with merchants and the working class too. The taste for art stimulated a free market for paintings that functioned like other commodity markets. Artists had to compete to capture the interest of their public by painting on speculation
HENDRICK TER BRUGGHEN -
Caravaggisti HENDRICK TER BRUGGHEN, Calling of
Saint Matthew, 1621. Oil on canvas, 3’ 4” x 4’ 6”
Returned from a trip to Italy, where he fell under the influence of Caravaggio, the Catholic painter Hendrick ter Brugghen painted the Calling of Saint Matthew in a manner that echoes the naturalistic presentation of the figures of Caravaggio's painting of the same subject
However, ter Brugghen employs a more colorful palette of soft tints and reduces the contrasts of dark and light
GERRIT VAN HONTHORST -
Caravaggisti GERRIT VAN HONTHORST, Supper
Party, 1620. Oil on canvas, approx. 7’ x 4’ 8”
Genre scene
Gerrit van Honthorst's Supper Party is a moralizing genre scene showing an informal gathering of unidealized human figures
Influence of Caravaggio is evident in the mundane setting and the dramatic lighting. A new development is the placement of the light source within the painting
FRANS HALS
Dutch republic had no absolute monarch
Protestant/Calvinist -> suspicious of religious art
No monarch or Catholic Church meant patronage came from expanding class of merchant patrons
Dutch Baroque art centered on genre scenes, landscapes, portraits and still lifes
Frans Hals -> leading Dutch portrait painter -> casualness, immediacy, and intimacy in his paintings
ARCHERS OF SAINT HADRIAN
FRANS HALS, Archers of Saint
Hadrian, ca. 1633. Oil on
canvas, approx. 6’ 9” x 11
Frans Hals, who specialized in
portraiture, painted a group
portrait of the Archers of Saint
Hadrian
He enlivened by showing each
man as both a troop member and
an individual with a distinct
personality
The painting has a lively
impromptu energy, an effect that
is enhanced by Hals's vivacious
brushwork
Participation of Dutch burgher in
civic organizations -> militia
group
WOMEN REGENTS OF HAARLEM
FRANS HALS, The Women Regents of the Old Men’s Home at Haarlem, 1664. Oil on canvas, 5’ 7” x 8’ 2”. Frans Halsmuseum, Haarlem
Group portrait of Calvinist women engaged in charitable work
Hals's more somber group portrait of The Women Regents of the Old Men's Home at Haarlem communicates a stern, puritanical, and composed sensibility
JUDITH LEYSTER
JUDITH LEYSTER, Self-Portrait, ca.
1630. Oil on canvas, 2’ 5 3/8” x 2’ 1
5/8”
Born in 1609 in Haarlem, Leyster
may have worked in the workshop
of the famous Dutch portraitist
Frans Hals while in her twenties.
Like Hals', her brushwork is free and
lively. The relaxed pose and
gesture she used in her Self-Portrait
is very similar to one Hals had used
REMBRANDT
Rembrandt van Rijn was recognized as the leading Dutch painter of his time. In his portraits, for which he became particularly prominent, Rembrandt delved deeply into the psyche and personality of his subjects
Rembrandt van Rijn was a Dutch painter and etcher. He is generally considered one of the greatest painters and printmakers in European art history and the most important in Dutch history. His contributions to art came in a period of great wealth and cultural achievement that historians call the Dutch Golden Age
REMBRANDT – ANATOMY LESSON OF DR. TULP
REMBRANDT VAN RIJN, Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Tulp, 1632. Oil on canvas, 5’ 3 3/4” x 7’ 1 1/4”. Mauritshuis, The Hague
Rembrandt’s first group portrait -> depicts specific anatomy lesson of January 1632
Dr. Tulp is seated -> wearing rimmed hat that is an academic badge of chairman -> hands prominently displayed
Influenced by Caravaggio and tenebroso
Commissioned by the surgeon’s guild
NIGHT WATCH
REMBRANDT VAN RIJN, The
Company of Captain Frans
Banning Cocq (Night Watch),
1642. Oil on canvas 11’ 11” x
14’ 4”. Rijksmuseum,
Amsterdam
Misnamed painting -> not a
nocturnal scene -> darkness is
due to varnish and grime
18 men portrayed -> militia
marching out on patrol or on
parade
Painted for the new
Musketeers hall -> part of a
group of 6 paintings of various
militias -> later cut down on all
sides when moved to the town
hall
THE COMPANY OF CAPTAIN FRANS
BANNING COCQ – THE NIGHT WATCH
The painting is renowned for three elements: its colossal size (11 ft 10in x 14 ft 4in), the effective use of light and shadow (chiaroscuro), and the perception of motion in what would have traditionally been a static military portrait
This painting was completed in 1642, at the peak of the Dutch Golden Age. It depicts the company moving out, led by Captain Frans Banning Cocq (dressed in black, with a red sash) and his lieutenant (dressed in yellow, with a white sash)
With effective use of sunlight and shade, Rembrandt leads the eye to the three most important characters among the crowd, the two gentlemen in the centre (from whom the painting gets its original title), and the small girl in the centre left background. Behind them the company's colours are carried by the ensign
RETURN OF THE
PRODIGAL SON
REMBRANDT VAN RIJN, Return of the Prodigal Son, ca. 1665. Oil on canvas, approx. 8’ 8” x 6’ 9”
Contrast this with the overwhelming and opulent art of Baroque Italy
Spiritual stillness of Rembrandt’s religious paintings -> inward turning contemplation far from the choirs and trumpets and heavenly tumult of Italian Baroque Counter-Reformation work
Hallmark of Rembrandt's style is nuanced treatment of light -> manipulated the direction, intensity, distance, and surface texture of light and shadow in order to render the subtle nuances of character and mood of persons or of whole scenes. In his later work, the conflicts of light and dark are reconciled to produce a quiet mood of tranquil meditation
REMBRANDT’S
SELF-PORTRAITS
REMBRANDT VAN RIJN, Self-Portrait, ca. 1659–1660. Oil on canvas, approx. 3’ 8 3/4” x 3’ 1”
Late Rembrandt self-portrait, light shines from the upper left to bathe the subject's face in soft light, leaving the lower part of his body in shadow -> chiaroscuro
The portrait's dignity and strength is also the result of assertive brushwork, which suggests confidence and self-assurance
One of numerous self-portraits throughout his life
REMBRANDT
Belshazzar's Feast, Rembrandt Van Rijn, 1635,
Oil on canvas
REMBRANDT
Supper at Emmaus, Rembrandt
Van Rijn.1648,Oil on canvas
LANDSCAPE AND INTERIOR
PAINTING
Landscape scenes abound in 17th
century Dutch art
The people had a very direct
relationship to the land ->
extensive century long land
reclamation project -> dikes and
drainage systems
The Dutch urban mercantile public
avidly collected paintings—
landscapes, interior scenes, and
still lifes—showing their own daily
lives and everyday world. In a
country that had reclaimed much
of its land from the sea, landscape
scenes were especially popular
AELBERT
CUYP
AELBERT CUYP, A Distant View of Dordrecht, with a Milkmaid and Four Cows, and Other Figures (The “Large Dort”), late 1640s. Oil on canvas, approx. 5’ 1” ´ 6’ 4 7/8”
Contrast this w/the idealized classical landscapes that appear in Italian Renaissance paintings
Albert Cuyp's View of Dordrecht with Cattle shows a specific, unidealized landscape in which the details have been carefully and skillfully observed. The cows, shepherds, and milkmaid refer to the Dutch Republic’s important dairy industry
JACOB
VAN RUISDAEL
JACOB VAN RUISDAEL, View of Haarlem from the Dunes at Overveen, ca. 1670. Oil on canvas, approx. 1’ 10” x 2’ 1”
Jacob van Ruisdael's sensitively observed and precisely detailed View of Haarlem from the Dunes at Overveen includes identifiable landmarks.
The low horizon line leaves the sky filling almost three-quarters of the picture space
Work is imbued w/a quiet serenity that becomes almost spiritual
JAN VERMEER
JAN VERMEER, Girl with a Pearl
Earring, 1665
Vermeer’s masterwork, as the
name implies, uses a pearl earring
for a focal It is sometimes referred
to as "the Mona Lisa of the North"
or "the Dutch Mona Lisa"
The best-known and most highly
regarded of the Dutch interior
scene painters was Jan Vermeer.
He painted no more than thirty-
five paintings, but each are small,
luminous, and captivating
THE LETTER
JAN VERMEER, The Letter, 1666. Oil on canvas, 1’ 5 1/4” x 1’ 3 1/4”. Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam
The small, luminous interior scenes painted with care and directness by Jan Vermeer of Delft exude a sense of peace, familiarity, and comfortable domesticity
It is believed that Vermeer used optical devices such as mirrors and the camera obscura in composing his paintings. These devices also enabled him to develop a deep understanding of color
THE ART OF
PAINTING
JAN VERMEER, Allegory of the Art
of Painting, 1670–1675. Oil on
canvas, 4’ 4” x 3’ 8”
In the Allegory of the Art of
Painting, Vermeer places the
viewer outside the space of the
action, which is shown illuminated
as if by the light of inspiration
Women/model represents “history”
and the artist represents painting
-> painting is inspired by history
JAN STEEN
JAN STEEN, The Feast of Saint Nicholas, ca. 1660–1665. Oil on canvas, 2’ 8 1/4” x 2’ 3 3/4”
Genre works, popular in the
Netherlands, are pictorial representations in any of various media that represent scenes or events from everyday life, such as markets, domestic settings, interiors, parties, inn scenes, and street scenes
In The Feast of Saint Nicholas, Jan Steen shows a festive scene that may be interpreted as an allegory of selfishness, pettiness, and jealousy
STILL-LIFE PAINTING
PIETER CLAESZ, Vanitas Still Life, 1630s. Oil on panel, 1’ 2” x 1’ 11 1/2”
Many Dutch still-life paintings celebrate material possessions -> but the morality and humility central to Calvinist faith tempered Dutch pride in worldly goods
VANITAS PAINTINGS = a theme in still life painting that stresses the brevity of life and the folly of human vanity
Skull, timepiece, tipped glass, cracked walnut -> passage of time or presence of someone now gone
WILLEM KALF
WILLEM KALF, Still Life with a Late
Ming Ginger Jar, 1669. Oil on
canvas, 2’ 6” x 2’ 1 3/4”
Opulent objects -> Indian carpet
and Chinese jar -> attest to the
prosperous Dutch maritime trade
Watch, peach, and peeled lemon
suggest this is a vanitas painting
RACHEL RUYSCH
RACHEL RUYSCH, Flower Still Life,
after 1700, Oil on canvas, 2’ 6” x 2’
Rachel Ruysch's Flower Still Life
shows a lavish floral arrangement.
The short-lived blossoms of flowers
appear frequently as symbols of
life's transience
Flower paintings were very popular
in the Dutch Republic
ST. BAVO’S
CHURCH
Interior of the Choir of St. Bavo’s
Church, Haarlem, 1660
The stark interiors of Dutch
churches reflect the Calvinist
beliefs in a simple, unadorned
interior so that worshippers can
focus on the word of God rather
than the ornamental idols found in
Catholic churches.