 |
 |
|
 |
World & I School | World & I Homeschool | World & I College | World & I Library | |
 |
||
|
|
||
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
|
|
|
|
World & I School | World & I Homeschool | World & I College | World & I Library | |
|
|
||
|
|
||
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 |
 |
 he vanguard of sixteenth-century art may have been the Italians, but in the seventeenth
century it was the Dutch. Geographic exploration and global expansion defined the period, and
the Dutch led the world in commerce. In this Protestant republic with a capitalist economy and
a rapidly growing bourgeois society, political enlightenment and unprecedented economic
prosperity converged to create a boom in artistic creation the likes of which has seldom been
seen.
Elsewhere in Europe, art still reflected the power of kings and popes. In what is now the Netherlands, it mirrored the emergence of a new kind of civil society, one largely run by and for its Protestant mercantile burghers. For more than thirty years until the Treaty of Westphalia in 1648, the Dutch Republic--as the United Provinces of the north became known--was fighting to consolidate its independence from Spain, which had inherited the Netherlands from the Holy Roman Empire. At the same time, its fleet was establishing new colonies and opening new trading routes that turned Amsterdam into an opulent port city: Its population jumped from 50,000 in 1600 to 200,000 in 1650. And with prosperity came a demand for fancier homes and art to put in them. The Glory of the Golden Age, a landmark exhibition celebrating the two hundredth anniversary celebration of Amsterdam's Rijksmuseum, re-creates this special moment in history with dazzling clarity. Three hundred masterpieces--including paintings, silver, Delftware, period furniture, and other decorative objects--have been brought together in the most extensive exhibition ever staged by the Rijksmuseum. The Glory of the Golden Age is a homecoming of phenomenal breadth and range that reminds us once again of the unique accomplishments of this tiny country. Over a breathtakingly short period, it produced artists of the stature of Rembrandt, Vermeer, Frans Hals, Jan Steen, Jacob van Ruisdael, and Pieter de Hooch. These artists belonged to the same guilds; they worked in the same commercial marketplace. They knew one another's work, if only from prints. They competed, taught each other, collected each other's work, and on occasion collaborated.
This impressive gathering of works deftly conveys something of that connection and immediacy. Sculptures and decorative arts placed in the same area as paintings emphasize how different art forms flourished simultaneously. Grouped thematically, the works demonstrate how many different schools of painting were busy at the same time, from portraiture to landscape, from still life to genre painting. While Amsterdam, which drew Rembrandt from his native Leiden, was at the hub of artistic activity, Haarlem, Utrecht, Delft, and Dordrecht, as well as Leiden, had important guilds of artists working independently of each other. In Utrecht, which remained largely Roman Catholic, the tradition of religious painting was kept alive by painters who had studied with Caravaggio in Rome. In the rest of the country, painting was everywhere except in the churches. The taste for ornate religious art had diminished greatly with the Reformation. The Dutch were more favorably inclined toward paintings of landscapes and simple scenes of everyday life, and the acquisitive urge--reflected in Oliver Cromwell's description of the Dutch as people who "prefer gain to Godliness"--infected the whole of society. Peter Mundy, a British traveler visiting Amsterdam in 1640, noted: "All in general [strive] to adorn their houses, especially the outer or street roome, with costly peeces, Butchers and bakers not much inferiour in their shoppes, which are Fairely sett forth, yea many thymes blacksmiths, Coblers, etts., will have some picture or other by their Forge and in their stalle." Chronicling an Age  reed of the need to paint royal portraits and biblical scenes, many artists became unconscious
chroniclers of the era's social history. Important burghers, with their black satin suits and lace
collars, were natural subjects, but so too were maritime battles and elegant cityscapes.
Domestic interiors of the nouveau riche were painted with revolutionary realism down to the
details of the paintings on their walls. It was, with still lifes decorating every self-respecting
home, an enviable time to be an artist. "Thousands of painters of varying talents were active
during this century, producing several million paintings altogether," writes Jan Piet Filedt Kok
in the exhibition catalog introduction. "The production of decorative art--ceramics, glass,
silver, and furniture--achieved new heights too; only sculpture lagged behind at first."
The exhibition opens with "New Faces," a section devoted to the explosion in portraiture that resulted from the new middle classes' increasing self-awareness and prosperity. Frans Hals' Marriage Portrait of Isaac Massa and Beatrix van der Laen, c. 1622, reveals the artist's eye for naturalism. Hals made a radical departure from the stiff formal portraiture typical of the early seventeenth century. The smiling couple sits in a relaxed, almost spontaneous pose in a parklike landscape carefully composed by the painter. Symbols of marital fidelity and love are found throughout the work. Winding ivy clings to the tree--symbolizing steadfast love and dependence--while peacocks refer to Juno, goddess and protectress of marriage. In this business-oriented society, the accumulation of money not as a means to an end but for its own sake was a preeminent male preoccupation. Thomas de Keyser's Syndics of the Amsterdam Goldsmith's Guild, 1627, on loan from the Toledo Museum of Art in Ohio, depicts the sampling officials who oversaw the quality of the objects goldsmiths produced. The work exudes the sense of authority and rank bestowed by these professional associations. In the "Extravagantly Decked Out" section, Jan Miense Molenaer's The Marriage of Willem van Loon and Margaretha Bas, c. 1637, documents in great detail the couple's lavish wedding, which took place on October 6, 1637. Molenaer was commissioned to paint not only the bridal couple but all members of the groom's family as well. Displayed nearby, a pair of actual wedding gloves, c. 1622, brings a new level of immediacy to viewing the painting. It was customary for a wealthy man to give his betrothed a pair of wedding gloves as an engagement present. Pieter van Son gave this pair, made of soft white kid leather and decorated with pearls and gold thread, symbols of love and faithfulness, to Johanna le Maire. She would have worn them on the occasion of their marriage on June 4, 1622. "Deceptively Realistic " is devoted to still lifes. With a small number of works the exhibition illustrates the virtuosity of painters who portrayed flowers, cheese, fruit, or oysters with startling veracity. Willem Claesz Heda's Still Life with Gilt Goblet, 1635, reveals the painter's extraordinary ability to portray light in all its permutations. The unusual viewpoint "seats" the viewer at the laden table. The oyster liquor gleams; light passes through the glass roemer, casting a shadow on the reflective surface. "Seemingly Everyday" mirrors the ambivalence the Protestant Dutch felt about their affluence. While painters enjoyed showing people having a good time, these same works warned of the perils of decadence. Jan Steen was a master at moralizing, producing large, complex, but humor-laced allegories based on middle-class family celebrations. In Luxury Beware, 1663--inspired by proverbs dealing with the idea of casting pearls before swine--the party is in full swing. While a mother dozes in a drunken stupor, the household goes to rack and ruin: The dog eats from her plate, a boy smokes a pipe, the baby toys with mommy's pearls after having thrown a bowl to the ground, a pig makes off with the spigot from the wine barrel, and mother's husband succumbs to the wiles of a young woman. New Techniques  ther sections--there are twenty-three in all--reveal Dutch painters' interest in new techniques.
Chiaroscuro, the strong use of light and shadow initially borrowed from Caravaggio, was
taken a step further by Delft painters to heighten a natural sense of drama. Carel Fabritius
studied with Rembrandt before relocating to Delft. His subtle approach to daylight, seen here
in The Goldfinch, 1645, and his Self-Portrait, c. 1648--1650, conveys a quiet drama. His pupil
Vermeer developed the technique even further. Three of the thirty-six paintings Vermeer
produced during his lifetime are in the exhibition, including The Glass of Wine, 1661--62, on
loan from the Gemèldegalerie in Berlin.
As he did in life, so Rembrandt here dominates the array of treasures. Three Rembrandts on loan to the Rijksmuseum--The Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Nicolaes Tulp, 1632, from the Mauritshuis in The Hague; Flora, 1634, from the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg; and The Wedding of Samson, 1638, from the Gemèldegalerie in Dresden--show the broad range of his techniques. In the section called "Militia Companies," the straightforward renderings of these citizens' military units by other artists point up the groundbreaking composition of Rembrandt's Night Watch, 1642. Rather than portray the guardsmen seated around a table or at attention, Rembrandt chose to depict a random moment out of time in this sweeping Baroque work. A drummer beats his drum; a member of the company loads his gun; a captain addresses his lieutenant, all against a dramatic backdrop that explodes with color and movement. Near the end of the exhibition is Isaac and Rebecca ("The Jewish Bride"), c. 1665, a late work by Rembrandt. Light radiates from inside the figures of the bridal couple, illuminating their faces and costumes, and washing the heavily impastoed canvas in an ethereal gold, a perfect summation that says all that need be said about this unique moment in the history of Western art. The Glory of the Golden Age opened in April and closed in late September, but about half the works in the exhibition are in the collection of the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam. For more information on the museum and its exhibitions, visit the Web site www.rijksmuseum.nl. For information on how the glories of the Dutch Golden Age can be enjoyed in situ, visit the Web site of the Netherlands Board of Tourism at www.goholland.com Judith Bell is an arts writer living in Arlington, Virginia. |
|
Copyright © 2003 The World & I. All rights reserved. Terms of Use | Privacy Policy |
