NORTHERN
EUROPE,
1600-1700
GARDNER CHAPTER 25-1
PP. 679-691
BAROQUE ART IN THE NETHERLANDS

Dutch gain independence from Spain in
late 16th century

Prosperity + lack of absolute ruler = power
of the urban patrician class of merchants
and manufacturers

Northern Netherlands gains official
recognition as the Dutch Republic in 1648
-> Treaty of Westphalia

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

Economic prosperity

Bank of Amsterdam 1609

Amsterdam had highest per capita
income in Europe
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

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
ARCHERS OF SAINT HADRIAN
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 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
REMBRANDT – ANATOMY LESSON OF DR. TULP
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 thirtyfive 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

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
STILL-LIFE PAINTING
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.