Northern Europe, 1600 to 1700

camera obscura – a darkened box with a convex lens or aperture for projecting the image of an external object onto a screen inside. It is important historically in the development of photography.

genre scene – the pictorial representation in any of various media of scenes or events from everyday life, such as markets, domestic settings, interiors, parties, inn scenes, and street scenes.

landscape – the depiction of landscapes in art – natural scenery such as mountains, valleys, trees, rivers, and forests, especially where the main subject is a wide view – with its elements arranged into a coherent composition.

vanitas paintings – contains collections of objects symbolic of the inevitability of death and the transience and vanity of earthly achievements and pleasures; it exhorts the viewer to consider mortality and to repent.

memento mori – medieval Latin Christian theory and practice of reflection on mortality, especially as a means of considering the vanity of earthly life and the transient nature of all earthly goods and pursuits.

The Grand Manner – an English term used widely from the eighteenth century to describe what was considered to be the highest style of art in academic theory – a style based on an idealised, classical approach

Thirty Years’ War (1618-1648) – A war waged in the early seventeenth century that involved France, Spain, Sweden, Denmark, Austria, and numerous states of Germany. The causes of the war were rooted in national rivalries and in conflict between Roman Catholics and Protestants.

Treaty of Westphalia – The Peace of Westphalia was a series of peace treaties signed between May and October 1648 in the Westphalian cities of Osnabrück and Münster that virtually ended the European wars of religion.

classicism – the following of ancient Greek or Roman principles and style in art and literature, generally associated with harmony, restraint, and adherence to recognized standards of form and craftsmanship, especially from the Renaissance to the 18th century.

Flanders

• Remained Catholic and under Spanish control
• Flemish Baroque art is more closely tied to the Baroque art of Italy than is the art of much of the rest of northern Europe
• Leading Flemish painter of this era was Peter Paul Rubens
• Work and influence were international in scope
• A diplomat as well as an artist, he counted kings and queens among his patrons and friends
• His paintings of the career of Marie de’ Medici exhibit Baroque splendor in color and ornament
• And feature Rubens’s characteristic robust and foreshortened figures in swirling motion

Dutch Republic

• Received official recognition of its independence from Spain in the Treaty of Westphalia of 1648
• Worldwide trade and banking brought prosperity to its predominantly Protestant citizenry
• Largely rejected church art in favor of private commissions of portraits, genre scenes, landscapes, and still lifes
• Frans Hals produced innovative portraits of middle-class patrons
• A lively informality replaced the formulaic patterns of traditional portraiture
• Aelbert Cuyp and Jacob van Ruisdael specialized in landscapes depicting specific places, not idealized Renaissance settings
• Pieter Claesz, Willem Kalf, and others painted vanitas still lifes featuring meticulous depictions of worldly goods and reminders of death

Rembrandt van Rijn

• Greatest Dutch artist of the age
• Treated a broad range of subjects, including religious themes and portraits
• His oil paintings are notable for their dramatic impact and subtle gradations of light and shade
• As well as the artist’s ability to convey human emotions
• Also a master printmaker renowned for his etchings

Jan Vermeer

• specialized in painting Dutch families in serenely opulent homes
• Convincing representation of interior spaces depended in part on his employment of the camera obscura
• He was also a master of light and color and understood that shadows are not colorless

France and England

• The major art patron in 17th-century France was the Sun King
• The absolutist monarch Louis XIV
• Expanded the Louvre and built a gigantic palace-and-garden complex at Versailles 
• Featuring sumptuous furnishings and sweeping vistas
• Among the architects Louis employed were Charles Le Brun and Jules Hardouin-Mansart
• Succeeded in marrying Italian Baroque and French classical styles
• The leading French proponent of classical painting was Nicolas Poussin, who spent most of his life in Rome and championed the “grand manner” of painting
• called for heroic or divine subjects and classical compositions with figures often modeled on ancient statues
• Claude Lorrain, whose fame rivaled Poussin’s, specialized in classical landscapes rendered in linear and atmospheric perspective
• His compositions often incorporated ancient ruins
• In 17th-century England, architecture was the most important art form
• Two architects who achieved international fame were Inigo Jones and Christopher Wren
• Harmonized the architectural principles of Andrea Palladio with the Italian Baroque and French classical styles

Numerous political shifts occurred in Europe
Political and religious friction resulted in unrest and warfare
Between 1562 and 1721, Europe was at peace for just four yearsMajor conflict of this period

Thirty Years’ War (1618–1648)

• Fought mostly in Germany, but involved almost all of Europe
• Largest and most destructive wars in European history
• Conflict was primarily between Catholics and Protestants
• Quickly shifted to secular and political concerns

How it Started

• Omission of Calvinism from Peace of Augsburg (treaty recognizing Catholicism and Protestantism – 1555)
• Calvinists demanded to be included
• Protestants continued to take Catholic lands
• Emperor Ferdinand II wanted to increase power in the German states
• Protestant princes and Catholic princes had formed opposing alliances
• Emperor Ferdinand II wanted to destroy Protestantism in the Empire and wanted to increase the power of the Austrian Habsburgs
• German princes wanted to decrease the power of the Emperor while increasing their own independence and power
• Spanish Habsburgs wanted to link their territories together
• Spanish Habsburgs wanted to reclaim the Dutch Netherlands
• France and some other nations wanted to limit the power of the Habsburgs, Spanish and Austrian, in Europe and the Americas
• Denmark and Sweden wanted to protect Lutheranism and gain power in Northern Europe and the Baltic Sea
• Dutch Netherlands wanted to cement independence and limit Spanish power in Europe and the Americas

Concluded with the Treaty of Westphalia in 1648

• Responsible for the political restructuring of Europe
• United Provinces of the Netherlands, Sweden, and France expanded
• Spanish and Danish power diminished

Treaty of Westphalia

• Granted freedom of religious choice throughout Europe
• Abandoned idea of a united Christian Europe
• Accepted the practical realities of secular political systems

Heightened economic competition to Europe

• Changes in financial systems, lifestyles, and trading patterns
• Expanding colonialism fueled the creation of a worldwide marketplace

The Dutch founded the Bank of Amsterdam in 1609

• Became the center of European transfer banking
• Relieved traders of having to transport precious metals as payment

Trading practices became more complex

• Triangular trade (trade among three parties)
• Allowed for a larger pool of desirable goods

Exposure to an ever-growing array of goods affected European diets and lifestyles

• Coffee (from island colonies)
• Tea (from China)
• Sugar, tobacco, and rice were slave crops

Slave trade expanded to meet the demand for these goods

• Traders captured and enslaved Africans
• Shipped them to European colonies and the Americas
• Provided the requisite labor force for producing these commodities

Prosperity from international trade affected social and political relationships

• New rules of etiquette and careful diplomacy
• New wealth spent on art
• Expanding the number of possible sources of patronage

Peace of Westphalia (1648)

• Calvinism was granted equal rights with Catholicism and Lutheranism
• German states (365) were each recognized as sovereign and independent
• United Provinces of the Dutch Netherlands was recognized as sovereign and independent
• Switzerland was recognized as sovereign and independent
• France gained territories of Metz, Toulon, and Verdun and the province of Alsace
• Sweden gained western Pomerania and the bishopric of Bremen

General overview of results

• France emerged as the greatest power in Europe
• Sweden emerged as the greatest power on the Baltic
• Pope’s rejection of the Treaty was ignored showing the decline of the power of the Papacy
• Austrian Habsburg power was limited in the Holy Roman Empire
• Office of the Holy Roman Emperor was ceremonial without real power in the German states of the Empire
• Independence of German states would keep Germany divided until 1870
• Over one-third of the population of the Holy Roman Empire died during the Thirty Years’ War due to war, famine and disease
• Religious toleration began to emerge: rulers were reluctant to force religious beliefs on people

Flanders

• Netherlands had come under the crown of Habsburg Spain
• Emperor Charles V retires
• Everything goes to Phillip II
• Spanish kingdoms, their Italian and American possessions and Netherlands provinces
• Philip oppressed Protestants severely
• Led the northern provinces to break from Spain and to set up the Dutch Republic
• Southern provinces remained under Spanish control
• Claimed Catholicism as their official religion
• Holland and Belgium separate
• Signals religious and artistic differences

Painting

• Leading art of 17th-century Flanders (the Spanish Netherlands)
• Retained close connections to the Baroque art of Catholic Europe
• Dutch schools of painting developed their own subjects and styles

The two most important artists of the Baroque era in Northern Europe (what we knew as Flanders in the 15th century)—Rubens and Rembrandt—worked under enormously different circumstances, even though they lived only a few hundred miles apart, because Flanders became divided along religious lines in the 16th century. The area which is today Belgium remained Catholic (where Rubens lived), while the area which is today the Netherlands, or Holland (where Rembrandt lived) broke away from Catholic Spain (which had controlled it) and established an independent Republic that was predominantly Calvinist (a form of Protestantism).

PETER PAUL RUBENS

• Combined styles from Italian Renaissance and Baroque masters
• Also combined the styles of Michelangelo, Titian, Carracci, and Caravaggio
• Style had wide appeal
• Influence was international

Distinguished education

• Noted for his excellent manners and tact
• Spoke several languages
• Hung out with princes and scholars

Court painter to the dukes of Mantua

• Friend of King Philip IV of Spain, was his adviser on art collecting

Rubens was an enormously successful artist in the first half of the 1600s. His paintings were sought after by important patrons all over Europe. A shrewd businessman, Rubens was of course, also a devout Catholic. He is also a perfect example of the changed status of the artist: his friends and confidants were scholars, aristocrats, and even the Royal Families of Europe (Rubens was so trustworthy and clever that he served as a diplomat).Rubens spent several years in Italy early in his career studying Italian Renaissance art, as well as the art of classical antiquity. He combined this with the influence of Caravaggio, the Venetian artists of the Renaissance, the Baroque, and the tradition of his native Flanders (think Campin and Van Eyck). Rubens was so successful that he set up a large studio in his native Antwerp (which you can still visit). There, he churned out large numbers of paintings for his royal and wealthy clients, and charged for the paintings according to how much he had personally painted. He was always responsible for the idea of a painting, but if his assistants executed most of it, the work was less expensive. In his studio Rubens had assistants working for him who specialized in different things, so they could all work on different parts of a single painting. Although Rubens perfected this system, we know that it was common practice for the “Master” artist to have the idea and do much of the actual painting, but to have apprentices and assistants work on it, too.

MARIE DE’ MEDICI 

• Rubens friends were of royalty
• Helped him understand what art appealed to the wealthy and privileged
• Those in power liked the artwork that the Catholic Church supported in Italy

One of Rubens’s patrons was Marie de’ Medici

• Member of the famous Florentine house
• Widow of Henry IV
• Commissioned Rubens to paint a series glorifying her career
• Made 21 huge paintings designed to hang in the queen’s new palace in Paris (the Luxembourg)

Arrival of Marie de’ Medici at Marseilles

• Marie leaves France after her trip from Italy
• An allegorical personification of France
• France is in the cloak decorated with the fleur-de-lis (the floral symbol of French royalty), welcoming her
• Sea and sky rejoice at her safe arrival
• Neptune and the Nereids (daughters of the sea god Nereus) salute her
• Fame floats above her
• Under the Medici coat of arms, stands the commander of the vessel
• The only person who doesn’t appear to be moving
• Dressed in black and silver, contrasts against everyone else

This is one of 24 canvases that comprise the Medici Cycle, commissioned for the
home of Marie de Medici, the Palais du Luxembourg (which now houses the French
Senate and which she called the Palais Medici), the cycle loosely depicts the life of
Marie de Medici. Marie was the granddaughter of the Holy Roman Emperor, the
daughter of the Grand Duke of Tuscany, and the Archduchess of Austria. She
married Henri IV, the King of France. In 1610, the day before the King was
assassinated, she took the throne as Queen of France. She ruled as regent until
her son, Louis XIII, took power.

PETER PAUL RUBENS, Consequences of War, 1638–1639. Oil on canvas, 6’ 9” x 11’ 3 7/8”. Palazzo Pitti, Florence..

Ruben had access and insight into European politics

He always promoted peace, but war was constant throughout his career

Commissioned in 1638 to produce a painting for Ferdinando II de’ Medici (the grand duke of Tuscany)
Expressed his attitude toward the Thirty Years’ War

Main figure is Mars
Has left the open temple of Janus (when there was peace it stayed closed)
Rushes out with shield and sword dripping with blood, threatening the people with war
Dismisses his mistress Venus

From the other side
Mars is being pulled forward by the Fury Alekto, with a torch in her hand
Monsters Pestilence and Famine, partners of War
On the ground, turning her back, lies a woman with a broken lute, representing Harmony
There is also a mother with her child in her arms, indicating that fertility and charity are pushed away by War
An architect on his back, instruments in his hand

On the ground, under the feet of Mars
A book and a drawing on paper – war is destroying the arts and literature

Woman in black, with torn veil
Robbed of all her jewels and other ornaments
Represents Europe
Has suffered plunder, outrage, and misery

Europe is responsible for the world, carried by a small angel or genius
On top is the cross, symbolizes the Christian world

ANTHONY VAN DYCK, Charles I Dismounted, ca. 1635. Oil on canvas, 8’ x 11” x 6’ 11 1/2”. Louvre, Paris.

Most of Rubens’s successors in Flanders were at one time his assistantsThe most famous of these was Anthony Van Dyck (1599–1641)

• Wanted to be better than Rubens
• Left Antwerp for London
• Became court painter to Charles I
• Created dramatic compositions
• Specialty became the portrait

Charles I Dismounted

• Stands in a landscape with the Thames River in the background
• An equerry (helper of the British family) and a page (errand boy) stand with him
• Image of relaxed authority
• Looks like the king is out for a casual ride in the park
• Casual but with absolute authority
• Charles I looks down at the viewer
• Place him on a small ledge because he was actually pretty short

CLARA PEETERS, Still Life with Flowers, Goblet, Dried Fruit, and Pretzels, 1611. Oil on panel, 1’ 7 3/4” x 2’ 1 1/4”. Museo del Prado, Madrid.

Some Flemish Baroque artists also painted still-life paintings (inanimate objects artfully arranged)

• Clara Peeters (1594–ca. 1657)
• Pioneer of still-life genre
• Spent time in Holland
• Gained fame for her depictions of food and flowers together, and for still lives that included bread and fruit (breakfast pieces)

Still Life with Flowers, Goblet, Dried Fruit, and Pretzels

• One of a series of four paintings
• Early-17th-century meal
• Shows tremendous skill
• smooth, reflective surfaces of the glass and silver
• soft petals of the blooms in the vase
• often painted the objects in her still lives against a dark background
• no deep space
• leaves of the flower on the stone ledge look as though they are coming into the viewer’s space

In 1648 the dutch secured their independence from the Spanish

• Gain official recognition as the United Provinces of the Netherlands
• Bank of Amsterdam in 1609
• became the financial center of the Europe
• 17th century, had the highest income in Europe

Experts in sea travel

• Helped establish colonies everywhere
• Dutch trade routes extended to North America, South America, the west coast of Africa, China, Japan, and Southeast Asia

Lots of prosperity

• No absolute ruler
• Political power was in the hands of a wealthy class of merchants and manufacturer

Religious differences

• Spain and the southern Netherlands were Catholic
• Northern Netherlands were predominantly Protestant
• Calvinism rejected the idea of art in churches
• Artists produced little religious art in the Dutch Republic at this time

Widespread prosperity meant there were more art patrons

• Catered to the tastes of a middle-class audience
• Upper class = large-ship owners, rich businesspeople, high-ranking officers, and directors of large companies still existed
• Everyone started to collect art
• Commissions from royalty or the Catholic Church were not common
• This new middle class wanted ways to brag about their success and new social status
• Bought furniture, paintings, tapestries, and porcelain
• small, low-key works—portraits, still-lives, genre scenes, and landscapes
• There are records about their spending
• An individual earning between 1,500 and 3,000 guilders (guilder was worth about $1) a year would have been living comfortably
• 1,000 guilders for a house and another 1,000 guilders on furnishings
• Included a significant amount of art, particularly painting

Most art was very affordable

• Prints were extremely cheap because artists made lots of them
• Interior and genre scenes were inexpensive, costing 1-2 guilders
• Small landscapes cost between 3-4 guilders
• Portraits were the most costly

Price was determined by:

• Size of the work
• Quality of the frame
• Reputation of the artist

Dutch artists produced most of their paintings without first having a commission

• Hoped to appeal to a wide audience
• Sold their works directly to buyers who visited their studios
• Also sold through dealers, exhibitions, fairs, auctions, and even lotteries
• Some painters limit their practice to painting portraits, still lifes, or landscapes
• The most popular genres among middle-class patrons
• Artists did not always sell their paintings.
• Used their work to pay off loans or debts
• Bar debts could be settled with paintings

The institutions of today’s open art market

• dealers, galleries, auctions, and estate sales
• owe their establishment to the emergence in the 17th century of a prosperous middle class

HENDRICK TER BRUGGHEN, Calling of Saint Matthew, 1621. Oil on canvas, 3’ 4” x 4’ 6”. The Hague.

Calling of Saint Matthew

• Painted in 1621, after returning from a trip to Italy
• Chose the same subject Caravaggio had painted
• more colorful than Caravaggio’s
• Compressed the figures into a small well-lit space
• intimate effect

GERRIT VAN HONTHORST, Supper Party, 1620. Oil on canvas, 4’ 8” x 7’. Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence.

Supper Party

• Typical of 17th-century Dutch genre scenes (events from everyday life)
• Informal gathering of realistic people
• A musician plays for the group
• A young woman feeds a piece of chicken to a man whose hands are holding a jug of wine and a glass
• Lighthearted genre scenes were popular in Baroque Holland

Van Honthorst

• Spent several years in Italy
• Studied Caravaggio’s work
• Everyday tavern setting
• Only lit by candles and the night
• Fascinated by night-time effects
• Often placed a hidden light source in his pictures

Viewers could also interpret them morally

• Supper Party can be read as a warning
• Sins of gluttony (represented by the man on the right)
• Lust (the woman feeding the glutton is a prostitute with her aged procurer (her pimp) at her side)
• Could represent Christ (the light) who hung out with everyday people
• Beggers and prostitutes drinking, singing, strumming, and laughing

The Dutch

• Dutch artists made great portraits
• Portrait artists used the same poses, settings, attire, and decorations
• Tried to convey a sense of the sitter
• Usually someone of status or note – pope, king, duchess, or wealthy banker
• Artist’s goal was to produce an image appropriate to the subject’s station in life
• The Calvinists did not like pretentiousness
• Wore subdued and dark clothing with very little variation and no decoration

FRANS HALS, Archers of Saint Hadrian, ca. 1633. Oil on canvas, approx. 6’ 9” x 11’. Frans Halsmuseum, Haarlem.

Frans Hals

• Leading painter in Haarlem
• Made portraits his specialty
• Portraits seem more relaxed than traditional ones
• People look like individuals
• Hals used a light brush stroke
• Painting almost seems like a snap shot

Archers of Saint Hadrian 

• Dutch civic militia groups
• Claimed credit for liberating the Dutch Republic from Spain
• Archers met on their saint’s feast day in for a grand banquet
• Celebrations sometimes lasted an entire week, prompted new law limiting them to three or four days
• Events often involved a group portrait
• Each man is both part of the group and an individual
• movements and moods vary
• Some look straight at the viewer
• Others look away or at another person
• some are stern, others are animated
• Everyone is visible and recognizable

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.

The Women Regents of the Old Men’s Home at Haarlem

Group portrait of Calvinist women doing charitable work

• Dutch women took care of the family and the operation of the home
• But, they also worked
• Educated women took care of orphanages, hospitals, old-folks homes, and prisons

In Hals’s portrait, the regents sit quietly with stern looks as Calvinists would do

• The women— all painted as individuals—look out from the painting
• Expressions ranging from disinterest to concern
• The somber and monochromatic (one-color) palette, with only white accents of the clothing, contributes to the painting’s restraint

JUDITH LEYSTER, Self-Portrait, ca. 1630. Oil on canvas, 2’ 5 3/8” x 2’ 1 5/8”. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. (gift of Mr. and Mrs. Robert Woods Bliss).

Some of Hals’s students developed careers of their own as portraitists

One was Judith Leyster (1609–1660)

Self-Portrait

• picture is detailed, precise, and accurate but also looks spontaneous
• She depicted herself as an artist, seated in front of a painting on an easel
• palette in her left hand
• brush in her right hand
• Allows the viewer to evaluate her skill, both of the painting of herself, and of the painting she is working on
• Produced a wide range of paintings, including still lifes and paintings of flowers
• Specialty was genre scenes such as the image seen on the easel
• Seems confident in her abilities, smile and relaxed pose as she stops her work to look at the viewer
• Did not portray herself wearing the traditional artist’s smock
• Clothing is of a well-to-do family

Rembrandt was born in Leiden on July 15, 1606 – his full name Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn. He was the son of a miller. Despite the fact that he came from a family of relatively modest means, his parents took great care with his education. Rembrandt began his studies at the Latin School, and at the age of 14 he was enrolled at the University of Leiden. The program did not interest him, and he soon left to study art – first with a local master, Jacob van Swanenburch, and then, in Amsterdam, with Pieter Lastman, known for his historical paintings. After six months, having mastered everything he had been taught, Rembrandt returned to Leiden, where he was soon so highly regarded that although barely 22 years old, he took his first pupils. One of his students was the famous artist Gerrit Dou.Rembrandt moved to Amsterdam in 1631; his marriage in 1634 to Saskia van Uylenburgh, the cousin of a successful art dealer, enhanced his career, bringing him in contact with wealthy patrons who eagerly commissioned portraits. An exceptionally fine example from this period is the Portrait of Nicolaes Ruts (1631, Frick Collection, New York City). In addition, Rembrandt’s mythological and religious works were much in demand, and he painted numerous dramatic masterpieces such as The Blinding of Samson (1636, Städelsches Kunstinstitut, Frankfurt). Because of his renown as a teacher, his studio was filled with pupils, some of whom (such as Carel Fabritius) were already trained artists. In the 20th century, scholars have reattributed a number of his paintings to his associates; attributing and identifying Rembrandt’s works is an active area of art scholarship.

Rembrandt produced many of his works in this fashionable town house in Amsterdam (above left). Purchased by the artist in 1639, when he was 33, it proved to be the scene of personal tragedy: his wife and three of his children died here. The house became a financial burden, and in 1660 Rembrandt was forced to move. A new owner added the upper story and roof, giving it the appearance it still bears. In 1911 the Dutch movement made it a Rembrandt museum -preserving it both as a shrine of a revered national artist and as an imposing example of 17th Century Dutch architecture.

In contrast to his successful public career, however, Rembrandt’s family life was marked by misfortune. Between 1635 and 1641 Saskia gave birth to four children, but only the last, Titus, survived; her own death came in 1642- at the age of 30. Hendrickje Stoffels, engaged as his housekeeper about 1649, eventually became his common-law wife and was the model for many of his pictures. Despite Rembrandt’s financial success as an artist, teacher, and art dealer, his penchant for ostentatious living forced him to declare bankruptcy in 1656. An inventory of his collection of art and antiquities, taken before an auction to pay his debts, showed the breadth of Rembrandt’s interests: ancient sculpture, Flemish and Italian Renaissance paintings, Far Eastern art, contemporary Dutch works, weapons, and armor. Unfortunately, the results of the auction – including the sale of his house – were disappointing.

Video on Rembrandt (Its very long but covers his life in detail – 58 minutes)

REMBRANDT VAN RIJN, Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Tulp, 1632. Oil on canvas, 5’ 3 3/4” x 7’ 1 1/4”. Mauritshuis, The Hague.

Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Tulp

• Painting he created shortly after he arrived in Amsterdam
• Deviated from the standard group portrait
• Chose to paint the members of the surgeons’ guild (who commissioned this group portrait) clustered together on the painting’s left side
• In the foreground appears the corpse that Dr. Tulp, a noted physician, is dissecting
• He depicted each of the “students” specifically
• Wear identical clothes
• Their poses and facial expressions – some are very interested in what the Doctor is doing, others ignore him
• One, at the tip of the triangle of bodies, looks out at the viewer.
• Another looks at the open book (a manual of anatomy) at the corpse’s feet.
• Rembrandt produced this painting when he was 26 and just beginning his career

REMBRANDT VAN RIJN, The Company of Captain Frans Banning Cocq (Night Watch), 1642. Oil on canvas (cropped from original size), 11’ 11” x 14’ 4”. Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam.

The Company of Captain Frans Banning Cocq also known as the Night Watch. 

• Painting is not at night
• Rembrandt was able to manipulate light and dark to make his paintings appear to glow
• The painting’s darkness is due to the varnish the artist used, which darkened over time
• Painting of civic guard group portraits
• Not a lot known about the painting
• The two officers, Captain Frans Banning Cocq and his lieutenant, Willem van Ruytenburch, along with 16 members of their militia, chipped to in to pay Rembrandt for the painting
• Not sure who the girl is just to the left of center
• Depicts men preparing for the parade.
• One of six paintings by different artists
• Various groups commissioned paintings like these around 1640 for the assembly and banquet room of Amsterdam’s new Musketeers Hall
• In 1715, when city officials moved Rembrandt’s painting to Amsterdam’s town hall, they cut off sections on all sides

REMBRANDT VAN RIJN, Return of the Prodigal Son, ca. 1665. Oil on canvas, approx. 8’ 8” x 6’ 9”. Hermitage Museum, Saint Petersburg.

Rembrandt and the Bible

• Although Calvins rejected religious art, it did not stop Rembrandt from making religious paintings and prints.
• Paintings depicting biblical themes were not highly regarded
• Still brought great prestige
• Rembrandt and other artists wanted to demonstrate their ability to tell stories from the Bible in new ways.
• Rembrandt’s religious art show a desire to paint biblical stories in human terms.
• Had a special interest in the states of the human soul.
• Sympathetic to the human condition

Return of the Prodigal Son

• Made at the very end of his life, one of the most moving pictures in all religious art, Return of the Prodigal Son
• Boy being held by his forgiving father
• Son kneels before him crying
• Three figures in the background are witness to the father’s mercy.
• Prodigal son is the story of a father giving his two sons money, one being wasteful and the other wise
• The light directs the viewer’s attention by illuminating the father and son
• Its focus is the spiritual face of the old man.
• The light touches the contrasting stern face of one of the witnesses

Rembrandt’s use of light is the hallmark of his style.

• refined light and shade until they blended with one another.
• less chiaroscuro, less contrast between light and dark
• When we look at objects we notice how the lights and darks are always changing
• Renaissance artists painted forms and faces in a flat, neutral light
• They represented the idea of light, rather than the real look of it.
• Rembrandt discovered degrees of light and dark, degrees of differences in pose, in the movements of facial features
• Did not paint the ideal
• Light could create many different moods and emotions
• Some would say he understood the “psychology of light.”

REMBRANDT VAN RIJN, Self-Portrait, ca. 1659–1660. Oil on canvas, approx. 3’ 8 3/4” x 3’ 1”. Kenwood House, London (Iveagh Bequest).

Light and dark are not in conflict in his portraits.

• Merge softly and subtly with one another.
• Self-portrait made late in Rembrandt’s life
• The light that shines from the upper left
• Highlights his face in a soft light,
• Lower part of his body in shadow.
• Presented himself as a working artist holding his brushes, palette, and maulstick and wearing his studio clothes—a smock and painter’s turban.
• The circles on the wall behind him are still debated
• May allude to a legendary sign of artistic virtuosity—the ability to draw a perfect circle freehand.
• X-rays of the painting revealed that Rembrandt originally depicted himself in the act of painting.
• But he decided to make a portrait not just of the artist but of the man as well.
• Made nearly 70 self-portraits in different media

Etching was perfected in the early 17th century
Many artists started using it
Allowed greater freedom than engraving

Process

• the printmaker covers a copper plate with a layer of wax or varnish (tar)
• Draw the design into this surface with a pointed tool, exposing the metal below but not cutting into its surface
• Immerses the plate in acid, which etches, or eats away, the exposed parts of the metal
• The tar’s softness makes it easier to use than wood and engraving
• Prints were a major source of income for Rembrandt
• Sometimes reused the plates so he could make a new edition

REMBRANDT VAN RIJN, Christ with the Sick around Him, Receiving the Children (Hundred Guilder Print), ca. 1649. Etching, 11” x 1’ 3 1/4”. Pierpont Morgan Library, New York.

Christ with the Sick around Him, Receiving the Children

• One of Rembrandt’s most celebrated etchings
• Hundred-Guilder Print refers to the high price during Rembrandt’s lifetime
• Used both engraving and etching to depict the figures and the setting

Presents the viewer with the power of the Catholic Church and the humanity and humility of Jesus.

• Christ appears in the center
• Preaching and blessing the blind, the lame, and the young
• Figures are standing, kneeling, and lying down
• Young man in expensive clothes with his head in his hand
• Feels bad because of Christ’s teaching that the wealthy need to give their possessions to the poor in order to gain entrance to Heaven
• The value range in the print is impressive
• At the right, the figures near the city gate are in deep shadow
• At the left, the figures, some drawn with just an outline, are in bright light
• Not lit by the sun, but by Christ himself
• Second source of light comes from the right
• Casts the shadow of the praying man’s arms and head onto Christ’s robe

Landscape scenes were popular in 17th-century Dutch art

• After gaining independence from Spain, the Dutch spent almost 100 years reclaiming land
• Built dikes and drainage systems
• People developed a very direct relationship to the land
• Most of the land was swamp like which made it difficult for large projects
• Most Dutch families owned and worked their own farms
• Felt connected to the land

AELBERT CUYP, A Distant View of Dordrecht, with a Milkmaid and Four Cows, and Other Figures, late 1640s. Oil on canvas, 5’ 1” x  6’ 4 7/8”. National Gallery, London.

Aelbert Cuyp

• Reputation as a landscape painter
• Distant View of Dordrecht, with a Milkmaid and Four Cows, and Other Figures
• Not an idealized landscape, this landscape is a real place
• Church in the background is the Grote Kerk in Dordrecht
• Dairy cows, shepherds, and milkmaid in the foreground refer to Dutch agriculture
• Huge demand for dairy products such as butter and cheese

JACOB VAN RUISDAEL, View of Haarlem from the Dunes at Overveen, ca. 1670. Oil on canvas, 1’ 10” x 2’ 1”. Mauritshuis, The Hague.

View of Haarlem from the Dunes at Overveen (with Bleaching Grounds)

• Painted the landscape with feeling, not just documentation
• Provided a wide view of this major Dutch city
• Painting is very specific:
• Saint Bavo church in the background
• Numerous windmills illustrate how the Dutch were reclaiming their land
• The figures in the foreground are stretching linen to be bleached (a major industry in Haarlem)
• The people and their homes are so small that they blend into the landscape
• Horizon line is low
• The sky fills almost three-quarters of the picture space
• The sun illuminates the landscape only in patches, where it has come through the clouds above.
• Church on the horizon illustrates the connection between heaven and earth

Interior Scenes

• Sense of peace, familiarity, and comfort
• Another popular subject among middle-class patrons
• Gives the viewer a glimpse into the lives of the people at this time

Jan Vermeer

• Most recognized Dutch painter of interior scenes
• Made most of his money from his work as an innkeeper and art dealer
• Painted no more than 35 paintings
• Began his career as a painter of biblical and historical themes
• Abandoned those subjects in for domestic scenes
• Composed neat, quiet interiors of Dutch middle-class homes with men, women, and children doing household tasks or playing
• Painted mostly women in their homes

JAN VERMEER, The Letter, 1666. Oil on canvas, 1’ 5 1/4” x 1’ 3 1/4”. Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam.

 The Letter

• A room of a well decorated Dutch house
• Curtain is pulled back
• Viewer is looking through an open doorway
• outsiders getting a glimpse of a private scene
• The painting features two women
• One wears elegant clothing, suggesting that she is a wealthy woman
• Plays the lute
• A maid interrupts her to deliver a letter
• It is a love letter (17th century Dutch would recognize this symbol)
• The lute was a traditional symbol of the music of love
• The painting of a ship on a calm (as opposed to rough) sea on the back wall was a symbol of love
• Vermeer was known for his use of light and how he used it to make space
• Paintings appear serene

The Camera Obscura

• Vermeer used mirrors and the camera obscura to help him paint
• Camera Obscura was a precursor to the modern camera…almost like a projector (this link has more detail)
• Did not just copy what he saw
• Used these as tools to help him with composition.

Colors are incredibly accurate and far more advanced than any of his contemporaries

• Shadows are not just black shapes
• Nearby colors affect each other
• Colors mix as they reflect off each other
• Experts have suggested that Vermeer also perceived the phenomenon modern photographers call “circles of confusion,” which appear on out-of-focus negatives
• Vermeer could have seen them in images projected by the camera obscura’s primitive lenses
• He approximated these effects with light dabs that, in close view, give the impression of an image slightly “out of focus.”
• When the observer draws back a step, however, as if adjusting the lens, the color spots cohere
• Giving an astonishingly accurate illusion of a third dimension

JAN VERMEER, Allegory of the Art of Painting, 1670–1675. Oil on canvas, 4’ 4” x 3’ 8”. Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna.

Allegory of the Art of Painting

• Artist appears in the painting
• His back to the viewer and dressed in “historical” clothing
• Painting the model who stands in front of him
• Wearing a laurel wreath and holding a trumpet and book, traditional attributes of Clio, the muse of history
• The map of the states on the back wall serves as another reference to history
• The viewer is outside the space of the action
• Looking in through the drawn curtain that separates the artist in his studio from the rest of the house—and from the viewer
• Some art historians have suggested that the light radiating from an unseen window on the left
• Illuminates both the model and the canvas being painted
• Alludes to the light of artistic inspiration
• Some say its a reference to painting inspired by history
• Vermeer’s mother-in-law confirmed this reading in 1677
• She wanted to keep the painting after the artist’s death
• 26 of his works were scheduled to be sold to pay his widow’s debts

Girl with a Pearl Earring c. 1665-1667, oil on canvas, 18 1/4 x 15 3/4 in. (46.5 x 40 cm.)

The background of the Girl with a Pearl Earring does not appear as it does when it came off the Vermeer’s easel some 340 years ago.

• Originally had painted a transparent green “glaze” over the dark underpainting.
• The background must have appeared as a smooth, glossy, hard and deep translucent green.
• Probably was a lot richer than it appears today

The green glaze was composed of three pigments:

• indigo (a natural dye from the indigo plant)
• weld (a natural dye from the yellow flowers of the would plant widely used to dye clothes in Vermeer’s day).
• Dark backgrounds were common in portraiture
• Enhanced the three-dimensional effect of the figure.

The type of turban worn by the young girl is unusual

• No other paintings exist with this type of outfit.
• Possibly inspired by another painting he saw of a young boy wearing a turban
• Used big, bold brushstrokes – two flat shapes of blue.
• The blue part of the turban was painted with natural ultramarine, an extremely costly pigment made of crushed lapis lazuli that other painters rarely used.

Restored in 1994

• Painting was not in good condition.
• The old varnish had yellowed and had to be removed with solvent using cotton swabs.

No line defines the profile of the left-hand side of the girl’s nose.

• The bridge is given precisely the color and tone of the adjacent cheek.
• The lines of the right side of her nose and nostril are lost in shadow.
• The young girl’s tear drop pearl hangs freely and motionless, the only light in a dark space.
• A pearl this size probably did not exist and is made up or exaggerated
• The yellow shirts worn by the young girl is unique
• Very generalized.
• The broad brushstrokes suggest rather than define the heavy folds of what would appear to be a cape made of course fabric.

The movie by the same name featuring Scarlett Johansson is for the most part fictional.

Still-Life Painting

• Dutch were proud of their accomplishments
• Popularity of still-life paintings—particularly images of possessions—reflected this pride

Pieter Claesz

Vanitas Still Life

• Still Life about Vanity
• Celebrates material possessions, here on top of a dresser
• The Calvinist faith did try to reign in this pride
• Claesz illustrates the appreciation and enjoyment of the beauty and value of objects
• Also reminded the viewer of immortality by incorporating references to death
• Paintings with such features are called vanitas (vanity) paintings
• Each feature is referred to as a memento mori (reminder of death)

In Vanitas Still Life

• References to mortality include the skull, watch, tipped over glass, and cracked walnut
• All suggest the passage of time
• Something or someone was here—and now is gone
• Claesz emphasized this element of time (and demonstrated his technical skill) by including a self-portrait, reflected in the glass ball on the left side of the table
• He appears to be painting this still life
• Even though the painting is about death, the artist escapes death by including himself in the painting.

WILLEM KALF, Still Life with a Late Ming Ginger Jar, 1669. Oil on canvas, 2’ 6” x 2’ 1 3/4”. Indianapolis Museum of Art, Indianapolis. (gift in commemoration of the 60th anniversary of the Art Association of Indianapolis, in memory of Daniel W. and Elizabeth C. Marmon).

WILLEM KALF

• As the Dutch become wealthier
• Precious objects and luxury items make their way into still-life paintings

Still Life with a Late Ming Ginger Jar

• Highlighted Dutch trade through his painting of the Indian carpet and the Chinese jar used to store ginger (a luxury item)
• Venetian and Dutch glassware
• Silver dish
• The watch, peach, and peeled lemon suggests that this work is also a vanitas painting.

RACHEL RUYSCH, Flower Still Life, after 1700. Oil on canvas, 2’ 5 3/4” x 1’ 11 7/8”. The Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo (purchased with funds from the Libbey Endowment, gift of Edward Drummond Libbey).

RACHEL RUYSCH

• Cut flowers die and show up frequently in vanitas paintings
• Popular in the Dutch Republic

Ruysch’s father was a professor of botany and anatomy

• She acquired an international reputation for her paintings

Flower Still Life

The floral arrangement is so full that many of the blossoms seem to be spilling out of the vase

She positioned the flowers to create a diagonal

• Runs from the lower left of the painting to the upper right corner
• Offsets the opposing diagonal of the table edge

From 1708 to 1716 she served as court painter to the elector Palatine (the ruler of the Palatinate, a former division of Bavaria) in Düsseldorf, Germany

France

• Monarchs authority had been increasing for centuries,
• Louis XIV (r. 1661–1715)
• Sought to determine the direction of French society and culture
• France became Europe’s largest and most powerful country in the 17th century

The Sun King
In France, Louis XIV (who reigned from 1661 to 1715), also known as the “Sun King,” centralized the government around his own person and used art and architecture in the service of the monarchy. The French monarchs ruled with absolute power, meaning that there was little or no check on what they could and could not do. There was no parliament that would have balanced the power of the King (as there was in England). The King also ruled, so it was believed, by divine right. That is, that the power to rule came from God. In an effort to use art in support of the state, Louis XIV established the Royal Academy of Fine Arts to control matters of art and artistic education by imposing a classicizing style as well as other regulations and standards on art and artists.

Versailles
Louis XIV also built an opulent new palace, Versailles, which became the King’s official residence in 1682. Versailles is 14 miles southwest of Paris and contains 700 rooms! It is probably impossible to get a sense of the enormity and luxury of Versailles without going there.

You have probably heard of the famous Galerie des Glaces (or Hall of Mirrors), a room with 17 mirrors facing the windows that look out onto fabulous gardens.  The ceiling of this room is decorated with paintings extolling the virtues and achievements of Louis himself. (Here you can actually get a full, 360 degree view of this famous and extravagent hallway). Louis XIV eventually invited the higher French aristocrats to live there and wait upon him. And so Versailles was not just a place to live—it became the symbol of the French monarchy itself, and therefore everything about the decor had to speak of the power and accomplishments of the King. Every aspect of the King’s life (waking, eating, everything!) was thoroughly ritualized, convincing everyone there of the incredible majesty of the King. The thousands of people who lived at Versailles also required entertainment, and so Versailles also became the seat of lavish spectacles including ballets, balls, hunts and receptions, all presided over by the King.

Nicolas Poussin (1594–1665)

• Rome’s ancient and Renaissance monuments enticed many French artists to study there
• Born in Normandy
• Spent most of his life in Rome
• Produced large but austere paintings similar to those by Titian and Raphael
• Established classical painting as an important ingredient of 17th-century French art
• His classical style contrasts to the Baroque style of the Italian artists in Rome
• Poussin outlined the principles of classicism in notes for an intended treatise on painting, left incomplete at his death
• Described the essential ingredients necessary to produce a beautiful painting in “the grand manner”

“The grand manner consists of four things: Subject-matter or theme, thought, structure, and style…”

NICOLAS POUSSIN, Et in Arcadia Ego, ca. 1655. Oil on canvas, approx. 2’ 10” x 4’. Louvre, Paris.

Et in Arcadia Ego (I, Too, in Arcadia, or Even in Arcadia, I [am present])

• Landscape provides the setting for the picture
• In the foreground are three shepherds
• Live in the land of Arcadia (Greek mythology its home to Pan)
• Study an inscription on a tomb as a female figure places her hand on the shoulder of one of them
• May be the spirit of death
• Reminding these mortals, as does the inscription, that death is found even in Arcadia
• The countless draped female statues surviving in Italy from Roman times supplied the models for this figure
• The posture of the youth with one foot resting on a boulder derives from Greco-Roman statues of Neptune, the sea god, leaning on his trident
• The classically compact and balanced grouping of the figures, the even light, and the thoughtful and reserved mood complement Poussin’s classical figure types

NICOLAS POUSSIN, Burial of Phocion, 1648. Oil on canvas, 3’ 11” x 5’ 10”. Louvre, Paris.

Burial of Phocion

• Source was Plutarch’s Life of Phocion
• a biography of the Athenian general whom his friends put to death for treason
• Eventually, the state gave Phocion a public funeral and memorialized him
• In the foreground of Poussin’s painting
• Hero’s body is being taken away
• His burial on Athenian soil was forbidden at first
• The two strong men and the stretcher they are carrying are isolated in a great landscape
• Its carefully arranged terraces bear slowly moving streams, shepherds and their flocks, and, in the distance, whole assemblies of solid geometric structures
• No storms in the sky
• The trees are few and carefully arranged
• like curtains lightly drawn back
• Poussin did not intend this scene to represent a particular place and time
• It was the French artist’s construction of an idea of a noble landscape to frame a noble theme
• The Phocion landscape is nature subordinated to a rational plan

Claude Gellée (Called Claude Lorrain after his birthplace in the city of Lorraine)

• Rivaled Poussin in fame
• Softer style than Poussin
• The figures in Claude’s landscapes tell no dramatic story, point out no morals, and praise no heros
• Appear to be added as an afterthought to the landscape
• For Claude, painting involved essentially one theme
• The beauty of a sky with the light of a setting sun

CLAUDE LORRAIN, Landscape with Cattle and Peasants, 1629. Oil on canvas, 3’ 6” x 4’ 10 1/2”. Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia (George W. Elkins Collection).

Landscape with Cattle and Peasants

• The figures in the right foreground have a conversation
• In the left foreground, cattle relax
• In the middle ground, cattle walk away
• Atmospheric and linear perspective
• Ideal world bathed in sunlight in infinite space
• Drew landscapes in hundreds of sketches

LOUIS LE NAIN, Family of Country People, ca. 1640. Oil on canvas, 3’ 8” x 5’ 2”. Louvre, Paris.

LOUIS LE NAIN

Not all artists were interested in classicism

French painted figures as though they are waiting on something

Family of Country People

• Celebrates the virtue of peasants who worked the soil
• Expresses the dignity of one peasant family
• These poor everyday people had little to be happy about
• Were miserable during the Thirty Years’ War

Georges de La Tour (1593–1652)

• France  was a Catholic country, and religious themes, although not as common as in Italian Baroque art, occupied some 17th-century French painters
• His work, particularly his use of light, suggests a familiarity with Caravaggio’s art
• May have learned about Caravaggio from the Dutch school of Utrecht

GEORGES DE LA TOUR, Adoration of the Shepherds, 1645–1650. Oil on canvas, approx. 3’ 6” x 4’ 6”. Louvre, Paris.

Adoration of the Shepherds

Light

• Makes use of the night setting favored by the school of Utrecht
• However, the light, shaded by an old man’s hand, falls upon a very different company in a very different mood

A group of humble men and women, coarsely clad, gather in prayerful vigil around a luminous baby Jesus

• Without the aid of the title, this might be construed as a genre piece, a narrative of some event from peasant life
• Nothing in the environment, placement, poses, dress, or attributes of the figures distinguishes them as the scriptural characters
• The artist did not even paint halos
• The light is not spiritual but material – It comes from a candle
• La Tour’s scientific scrutiny of the effects of light nevertheless had religious intention and consequence
• The light illuminates a group of ordinary people held in a mystic trance induced by their witnessing the miracle of the Incarnation
• La Tour eliminated the dogmatic significance and traditional iconography of the Incarnation
• Still, these people reverently contemplate something they regard as holy
• The devout of any religious persuasion can read this painting, regardless of their familiarity with the New Testament
• The supernatural calm that pervades Adoration of the Shepherds is characteristic of the mood of Georges de La Tour’s art
• He achieved this tone by eliminating motion and emotive gesture (only the light is dramatic), by suppressing surface detail, and by simplifying body volumes
• These stylistic traits are among those associated with classical and Renaissance art
• Thus, several apparently contradictory elements meet in the work of La Tour: classical composure, fervent spirituality, and genre realism.

Louis XIV

• Preeminent French art patron of the 17th century was King Louis XIV
• Determined to consolidate and expand his power, Louis was a master of political strategy and propaganda
• Established a carefully crafted and nuanced relationship with the nobility
• Granting them sufficient benefits to keep them pacified
• Simultaneously maintaining rigorous control to avoid insurrection or rebellion

Also ensured subservience by anchoring his rule in divine right (a belief in a king’s absolute power as God’s will), rendering Louis’s authority incontestable

• Eagerly adopted the title “le Roi Soleil” (“the Sun King”)
• Louis’s desire for control extended to all realms of French life, including art
• Principal adviser, Jean-Baptiste Colbert
• Strove to organize art and architecture in the service of the state
• Understood the power of art as propaganda and the value of visual imagery for cultivating a public persona
• Spared no pains to raise great symbols and monuments to the king’s absolute power
• Sought to regularize taste and establish the classical style as the preferred French manner
• The founding of the Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture in 1648 served to advance this goal
• Louis XIV maintained a workshop of artists, each with a specialization — faces, fabric, architecture, landscapes, armor, or fur
• Many of the king’s portraits were a group effort, but the finest is the work of one artist

HYACINTHE RIGAUD, Louis XIV, 1701. Oil on canvas,  9’ 2” x 6’ 3”. Louvre, Paris.

The portrait of Louis XIV – By Hyacinthe Rigaud (1659–1743)

• Successfully conveys the image of an absolute monarch
• The king, age 63 when Rigaud painted this work, looks out at the viewer with directness
• He stands with his left hand on his hip and with his elegant ermine-lined fleur-de-lis coronation robes thrown over his shoulder
• Suggesting an air of haughtiness
• Louis also draws his garment back to expose his legs
• (The king was a ballet dancer in his youth and was proud of his well-toned legs)
• The Sun King is the unmistakable focal point of the image, and Rigaud placed him so that he seems to look down on the viewer
• In fact, Louis XIV was very short in stature— Only five feet, four inches
• A fact that drove him to invent the red-heeled shoes he wears in the portrait
• The carefully detailed environment in which the king stands also contributes to the painting’s stateliness and grandiosity
• When the king was not present, Rigaud’s portrait, which hung over the throne, served in his place
• Courtiers were not permitted to turn their backs on the painting