The Dutch seventeenth century: the painting of the "Golden Age". Genres and styles

Of the Dutch seventeenth century, historians are wont to refer to it as the “Golden Age,” in that between the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries,Holland and the other six provinces of the northern Netherlands became independent from the domination of Spain, giving rise to the Republic of the United Provinces, and the achievement ofpolitical autonomy was accompanied by a formidable commercial, colonial and economic development and an equally extraordinary artistic flowering. The painting of the Dutch Golden Age, during and following the War for Independence (1568-1648), was an expression of a widespread cultural climate related to all aspects of life and nature and a deep sense and civic pride, a celebration of Dutch success and identity. Trade was the driving force behind prosperity and thought (the Dutch East India Company, the first multinational corporation with shares that established the first stock exchange, was created in 1602) that was expressed through art, especially painting.

The core of Golden Age painting is from about the 1720s until theinvasion into the French Republic and victory in 1672, also called “the year of disaster.” A distinguishing feature of the Dutch period, in comparison with painting in Counter-Reformation Catholic Europe, was the limited number of religious paintings: rampant Calvinism discouraged sacred depictions in churches and biblical subjects were mostly intended for home settings, Catholic emphasis gave way to ordinary life and treated realistically.Seventeenth-century Dutch painting was influenced by a range of artistic influences, by Pieter Bruegel the Elder and the artists of the Northern European Renaissance, such as Jan van Eyck, Albrecht Dürer, and Hieronymus Bosch, and developed with the experiences of the Haarlem Mannerists, the Utrecht Caravaggists, the leading figures of Dutch Classicism, and the Delft School.

Holland declined in a peculiar way the Baroque language and trends that dominated in other countries. Evidence of this was the ever-increasing number of genre works, with cross-sections of working and playful life, which was indicative of a patronage that was no longer only institutional, ecclesiastical and aristocratic in the prerogative of the abiding class, but instead more related to the demand of the middle and merchant classes, as well as guilds and brotherhoods, and private citizens who became art collectors, spreading a new kind of patronage.

Painting entered the homes and portrayed their interiors during everyday life, celebrating theorder and morality of private life. It was not uncommon for the common people to own and display maps, paintings and prints in their homes, as can be seen from many masterpieces of the period in which they appear, objects, paintings and wall decorations represented. Reason being, the works produced in the early seventeenth century turn out to be small, ensuring their more affordable dissemination at every social level and intended for homes, and gradually larger as prosperity and knowledge increased throughout the century. It was a change that would shape Dutch art and influence European art: from the types of images, to the way they were produced and sold.

Another distinctive feature of the period was the proliferation of distinct pictorial genres and the crediting of popular subjects that were “new” in a more general current of Baroque painting and absolutely in Western painting. The seventeenth-century Dutch supported more than a thousand artists, including some of the greatest painters of any era, and their technical quality was generally high, still mostly following the old medieval system of training byapprenticeship from a master.The artists favored mainly secular subjects, although allegorically charged with references to moral and religious themes, believing that Dutch success and prosperity were a gift from God: from natural and urban landscapes with mills and animals that honored the country’s beauty, harmony, and industriousness, to still lif es that celebrated local wealth and exotic goods that were the fruits of international trade, to portraits that commemorated individuals, their position, character, and place in the community. All of these images were representative of the pride that Dutch citizens felt for their nation, and they went on to convey the theological struggle between Protestants and Catholics that raged in the Netherlands, balanced between worldly appeals and spiritual stance.

The central elements of seventeenth-century Dutch painting are the light and brightness expressed by colors, as a fundamental tool of representation, and the attention to detail typical of the Flemish tradition.nToday, the most valued painters of the Dutch Golden Age, protagonists of this happy cultural season, are Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn, the dominant figure of the period, Johannes Vermeer(also known as Jan Vermeer) and Frans Hals, who have delivered to us some of the greatest masterpieces of all time.

Themes and subjects of the Dutch seventeenth century in painting

At thebeginning of the century, legendary and literary themes of history painting were favored, which included allegories and popular religious subjects from biblical scenes. But around 1650 genre painting, which shows us the values, customs and habits of the Dutch of the time, began to spread in a magnificent evolution. Indoor scenes, portraits, natural landscapes, including winter, nocturnal and seascapes, cityscapes, Italianate landscapes. Floral paintings and still lif es of various types were very popular. Jan Brueghel, son of Pieter Bruegel the Elder, was one of the early pioneers of floral still life, in works such as Flowers in a Wooden Vase (1606-1607) an extravagant bouquet in a simple setting combines common flowers and rarities, a measure of Dutch enthusiasm already at that time to collect and market international botanical specimens.

Dutch painters began to produce a new realistic but identity-based view of the world that shifted from depicting society: single figures, peasant families, tavern scenes, “merry company” parties, women at work for the household, village or town scenes, at the market, in barracks, scenes with horses or farm animals, and many others. Especially in the first half of the century, portraits were very formal and rigid in composition. Groups were often seated around a table, each person looking at the viewer. Much attention was paid to fine details in clothing and furnishings, signs of people’s position in society. Later in the century the groups became more vivid and the colors brighter. This genre of group portraits, largely a Dutch invention, was a demand of the large number of civic associations that animated Dutch life, such as militia guards or regents of guilds and charitable foundations and the like.

Often, genre painting took on moral tones, both portraying the virtues and vices of the population, to comic effect. At the same time, what were called "little trifles“ developed. A characteristic type of depiction, combining elements of portrait, history, and genre painting, was the ”tronie" (the most famous in this respect is Jan Vermeer’s Girl with a Pearl Earring): a single figure in the half-length or foreground caught in an unusual mood or expression. The actual identity of the model was unimportant; he could represent a figure in costume or an informal commoner in dress and attitude. While the academy considered history painting, a category that also included biblical, mythological, and allegorical subjects, the highest form of painting, the taste and sensibility of the Dutch Golden Age preferred works depicting ordinary subjects.

Styles of the greatest artists Hals, Rembrandt and Vermeer

The rendering of light and chiaroscuro in the work, which has become central to art, brings together the work of the three great masters Frans Hals, Rembrandt van Rijn, and Jan Vermeer.

Frans Hals (Antwerp, 1580 - Haarlem, 1666) was one of the earliest pioneers of Dutch Golden Age painting; he focused on portraiture, chiaroscuro effects especially in the depiction of faces lent an expressive intensity and a definite characterization to his characters. During his long activity he followed a freer and more personal inspiration, without academic or more easily commercial conditioning. Between 1620 and 1635 he tackled Caravaggio-inspired themes, choosing to portray mainly ordinary people and establishing the genre of the group portrait that became peculiar to Dutch art, conceived as a celebration of civic harmony. He achieved fame with Banquet of the Officers of the Civic Guard of St. George (1616), and see among others Meeting of the Officers of the Company of St. Adrian (1627). In the following decades he was much sought after as a portrait painter for his personalized and realistic treatments. Yonker Ramp and His Fiancée (1623), depicting a couple in a cheerful moment, shows the liveliness of his quick, loose, and perceptible brushwork on the surface and a shift in painting style toward relaxed and cheerful models. His work influenced many later painters.

Rembrandt (Leiden, 1606 - Amsterdam, 1669) is generally considered the most important artist in the history of Dutch art, famous for his etchings and portraits, he was both innovative and prolific. One of his greatest contributions is that he transformed the process of engraving from a reproductive technique to a true art form, and he set the standard in the pictorial depiction of human feelings, imperfections, and morality. Incredibly gifted, from his earliest paintings he showed an interest in the dramatic effects of light and shadow that would dominate his later ones. A keen observer of life, he devoted himself to the study of the human figure and expression, however varied his work was, from historical, biblical and mythological scenes to landscapes, genre scenes and nudes.

He began with studies of his own face and self-portraits, about one hundred of which have come down to us(Self-Portrait with tousled hair, 1628; Portrait of the Artist as an Old Man, 1660), and became an important and sought-after portrait painter. However, his interest in history painting never faded.

The foundation of Rembrandt’s greatness lies in the strength of characterization, the narrative element, and the dramatic use of light. From the striking group scenes(The Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Nicholas Tulp (1632); Night Watch (1640-42), to the portraits of individual figures, he focused on the introspective description of the models, who almost always emerge from an impenetrable and mysterious darkness. As he matured, his use of color reflected an intense and suffered reflection on life. The chromatic and emotional values of light, add more intensity to the characters in a realistic way, highlighting their spontaneous gestures in relation to the audience outside the painting(The Mayors at the Amsterdam Woolenworkers’ Guild, 1662). The variations in brushwork between loose and rough, and the manipulation of textures through scratching or with a palette knife, would contribute greatly to a radically new distinctive style that would influence generations to come.

Jan Vermeer (Johannes van der Meer; Delft, 1632 - 1675) for his technical mastery and painstaking style is considered among the greatest painters of his burgeoning historical era. He favored intimate atmospheres and scenes of everyday life featuring mostly women engaged in a wide variety of domestic activities, of which The Girl with the Pearl Earring (1665) is a universal icon: from cooking, to sewing, to studying a musical instrument(Woman in Blue Reading a Letter, 1663). Colors and pigments were of extreme interest to Vermeer, known for his exquisite blending in ethereal hues and transparency effects that express the play of light on the skin, fabrics, and precious stones of his figures. Vivid in color, the realism of Vermeer’s interiors builds a narrative of the period, including of trades(The Milkmaid, 1658-1659; The Astronomer, 1668) and fashion and trends. In the construction of forms and proportions, figures and environments are minutely described, and loaded with symbolism, see TheAllegory of Painting (1666) or TheAllegory of Faith (1670-74).

His not extensive output, to date fewer than forty of his paintings are known, was rediscovered in the mid-19th century by the generation of Impressionists and Post-Impressionists such as Manet and Seurat, who were struck by what was then his innovative conception of light and original treatment of color.

The enormous success of 17th-century Dutch painting shaped the work of entire subsequent generations in Holland, as in Europe and around the world.

The Dutch seventeenth century: the painting of the "Golden Age". Genres and styles

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