DUTCH BAROQUE
Holland became independent from Spain in the late 1500’s.
It was a republic, with no king, and they were wealthy –
Money came from banks, sea exploration and extensive trade routes.
Solid upper & middle class were the main art patrons.
Mostly Protestant (mainly Calvinists) - very few religious images produced.
Portraits, still-life, landscapes, and genre scenes (slices of everyday life)
This was a Golden Age of Dutch art.
SLIDE - Frans Hals, Catharina Hooft & her Nurse.
1620. Oil on canvas. 34” x 25”.
Dutch Baroque portraits: Wide range -
Sometimes a single portrait in sparsely furnished surroundings
Sometimes groups in elaborate costumes.
Subjects usually wore plain clothes or a uniform, not elegant, expensive dress.
Accurate portrayal of facial features was VERY important to the Dutch
BUT.... wanted to show the subject’s personality as well.
Hals was the leading painter of Haarlem.
Liked realism. Inspired by Caravaggio’s lighting.
Like Velasquez, he tries to recreate the optical effects of light on shapes & textures.
He has a bold painting style, with slashing strokes. JOYFUL style.
Shows parental pride, and the parents’ wealth.
Rich fabrics, laces, a necklace too fine & expensive for a baby.
The child looks happy & delighted. Seems to acknowledge the viewer.
The nurse tries to distract her with an apple.
SLIDE - Hals, Gypsy Girl. 1628-30. Oil on wood.
SLIDE - Hals, Officers of the Haarlem Militia Company of St. Hadrian. 1627. Oil on canvas. 6’ x 8’ 8”.
Dutch group portraits:
Made to document the membership of corporate organizations.
A Dutch specialty – common kind of portrait
Groups would often meet & feast on the day of their patron saint.
These are Guards, charged with the military protection of Haarlem when needed.
Upper-middle class group.
When not on alert, the functioned like a fraternal order, as they appear here.
Shown as coherent groups but with attention to each individual’s portrait.
Less imaginative artists arrange figures in neat rows to depict every face clearly.
Very dynamic composition
Turned the group portrait into a lively social event. Lively & animated.
Looks spontaneous - like a photo - but was carefully arranged:
He uses diagonal lines in the gestures, banners, & sashes.
Uses stable perpendiculars in the table & window.
The black suits make the red, white & blue even more brilliant.
QUICK, LOOSE BRUSHWORK.
Hals did this same group 6 years later, in 1633 –
SLIDE - Hals, Women Regents of the Old Men’s Home at Haarlem.
1664. Oil on canvas. 5’7” x 8’ 2”.
Women regents were caretakers - of orphanages, old age homes, hospitals.
Women in Dutch society were often educated (read & write) many held jobs.
They were, and look like, a serious, pious group of old ladies.
Stern & somber, shown in the dark palette, with little color.
This portrait lacks the spontaneity of Hal’s other group portraits,
Is it because they were women?
Or because they take their work so seriously?
Can still make out individual personalities.
Again - QUICK, LOOSE BRUSHWORK.
SLIDE - Judith Leyster, Self-Portrait.
1630. Oil on canvas. 2’ 5” x 2’ 2”.
She was the most successful of Hals’ contemporaries and rivals.
One painting thought to be one of Hals’ best works was cleaned -
Revealed her signature, not his.
In her early 20’s she was the only female member of the Haarlem painters' guild.
She had a competitive relationship with Hals -
She even sued Hals for a breach of ethics
He lured away one of her students. She won.
She studied with Caravaggio’s followers -
Liked naturalism & chiarascuro similar to Caravaggio’s
Here, she stops work to look at the viewer with a welcoming smile. Lively & fun
Elegantly dressed, probably not the clothes she worked in.
Fine chair shows her success as an artist, well-off family.
She looks spontaneous. Confident & relaxed.
On her easel is one of the types of paintings that made her so much money.
She was famous for her paintings of musicians and performers.
The violin & its bow in her painting echo the brush & palette she holds.
She uses a narrow range of colors & warm lighting.
Leyster, Young Flute Player.
1635. Oil on canvas
Leyster stopped painting professionally after her marriage in 1636.
One of her best works - exquisite colors & effects.
SLIDE - Rembrandt Van Rijn, Self-portrait.
1659 - 1660. Oil on canvas. 3’ 9” x 3’ 1”.
Rembrandt was THE most important painter working in Amsterdam in the 17th century.
One of the greatest artists of all time.
One of 9 children. Father worked in a mill.
Dropped out of the University of Leiden to study painting.
Made most of his money off portraiture & prints.
Did many religious paintings
Some mythological scenes, landscapes, & figural studies.
Studied the work of Rubens to attract patrons like his.
Incorporated Rubens’ compositional ideas in his painting.
Also studied Leonardo da Vinci – evident in soft lighting.
Sold his work for high prices – famous & rich during his lifetime.
In 1639 he bought a large house & filled it with art & props:
Costumes, weapons, stuffed animals.
Looks dignified. Strong personality comes out.
Holds his brush & palette in many of his self-portraits.
Wears artist’s smock.
Visible brushstrokes.
SLIDE - Rembrandt, The Company of Captain Frans Banning Cocq
– also called “The Night Watch”. 1642. Oil on canvas. 11’ 11” x 14’ 4”.
A commission by a civic-guard company. Wanted a large-group portraits of its members. Considered one of Rembrandt’s finest works.
Often called “The Night Watch” because the dark background.
Varnish, & years of grime made it look like a night scene.
Has been cleaned, and you can now see the golden light
Olive greens, browns, reds, blues, and oranges
Lemon yellow costume on the lieutenant, at the right.
Shows a military group preparing for a parade in an Amsterdam street –
Lots of movement - not just a standard sitting portrait. Exciting.
Several colorful figures appear - kids & dogs in the street. (are they unnecessary?)
A girl at the left (has a chicken on her belt) is very prominently lighted.
Scholars have tried to identify her or find a symbolic meaning.
Maybe just there because Rembrandt used to sketch many street people -
Added her in for local flavor.
The Anatomy Lecture of Dr. Nicolaes Tulp. 1632. Oil on canvas
Shows Dr. Tulp & members of Amsterdam's surgeon guild.
Tulp dissects a forearm.
Tulp holds forceps in his right hand
Hold muscles/tendons of the arm that control the movement of the hand,
Left hand demonstrates how the motion occurs.
Focus goes to the corpse – very bright against dark background. Chiaroscuro.
SLIDE - Rembrandt, Three Crosses. 1663. Drypoint. 15’ x 18”.
Rembrandt was second only to Albrecht Durer in his love of printmaking.
Prints were a major source of income for him.
Especially etching and drypoint.
Free & spontaneous look of a drawing.
He liked to experiment with different methods of inking & different papers to print on.
Some of his work reflects his religious intensity.
Did art based on his personal study of the bible
Here he tries to capture the moment of the Crucifixion, dark & mysterious.
Reworked the plates & re-printed many times.
SLIDE - Rembrandt - Christ Receiving the Children
(The Hundred Guilder Print). 1649. Etching.
Called the “Hundred Guilder Print” because that’s how much someone bought it for,
100 Guilders = $60 at today’s exchange rate.
Back then, that was probably a LOT of money.
It sold while Rembrandt was still alive.
Christ is lovingly preaching to the sick, the blind, the lame, and to little kids.
SLIDE - Jan Vermeer, View of Delft. 1662. Oil on canvas. 38” x 46”
He was an innkeeper & art dealer who only painted for local patrons.
Painted very few works, fewer than 40 are known.
Excellent at composition -
Makes “quiet” atmospheres, whether landscape or portrait.
Comforting Dutch landscapes & interior scenes
Gives us a glimpse the lives of the upper/middle class.
This is not just a simple cityscape.
Didn’t copy the city exactly, he moved buildings around to create his ideal composition.
Uses clear, even light in this painting
Sense of stability & timelessness.
Probably experimented with a camera obscura –
Camera obscura enhances optical distortions -
Led to the “beading” of highlights.
Probably used it to visually analyze his work as he painted.
SLIDE - Vermeer, Woman Holding a Balance.
1664. Oil on canvas. 17” x 15”.
Most of his portraits are quiet interior scenes:
Asymmetrical, but strongly geometric in organization.
He subdues emotions; Shows “Moments of stillness”.
Most are enigmatic scenes of women in their homes
Sometimes alone, sometimes with a servant
Doing domestic activities - reading, writing, playing a musical instrument.
The woman here contemplates the balance, seems to be judging –
Judging the weight, the material things on the table... etc.
Her hand & the scale are the central focus
Then your attention then goes to her face -
Then the painting behind her of the Last Judgment.
The painting becomes a metaphor for eternal judgment.
SLIDE - Vermeer, Allegory of the Art of Painting.
1670 - 1675. Oil on canvas. 4’ 4” x 3’ 8”.
This is Vermeer as the artist, with his back turned to us as he works.
He wears old “historical” clothing, not his typical painting attire.
Model poses, in a blue robe, with a laurel wreath on her head.
Holds a book & trumpet - Symbols of Clio, the muse of history.
Reinforced by the historical map on the back wall.
Usually interpreted as an allegory - that “Painting is inspired by History”
Vermeer never puts anything in his works unless it has a symbolic meaning -
Or a strong compositional purpose
Vermeer’s wife also confirmed this interpretation after his death.
We aren’t really part of the scene.
The drapery is pulled back, and we just “happen” to come upon it.
SLIDE - Vermeer, Girl with a Pearl Earring.
1665–1675. Oil on canvas. 44.5 × 39 cm
Painting is in poor condition - numerous restorations & cracks.
Has been called the "Gioconda of the North" by many enthusiastic critics.
A neutral, dark background, almost black, which establishes a 3D effect.
She is seen from the side, turning to gaze at the viewer
Her lips are slightly parted, as if she were about to speak.
Dressed in a plain, brownish-yellow jacket, the white collar contrasts.
Blue turban with a lemon-yellow cloth that falls to her shoulders.
The headdress has an exotic effect.
Turbans were a popular fashionable accessory in Europe.
Large pearl hanging from her ear gleams, & stands out from her neck, which is in shadow.
Symbolic? Biblical –
Isaac sent earrings to chaste Rebecca as a first token of his love.
Do pearls have a spiritual meaning? Perhaps chastity?
It has been said that the ear is the first part of a woman’s body that a man wants -
To be heard by her.
SLIDE - Rachel Ruysch, Flower Still-Life.
After 1700. Oil on canvas. 2’ 6” x 2’.
Dutch - very proud of their still-life tradition, especially flower pieces.
Dutch were major growers & exporters of flowers, especially tulips –
Tulips appear in nearly every flower piece.
Ruysch was one of the most sought after & highest paid still-life painters in Europe.
Her pieces brought in twice what Rembrandt’s did.
She had a long career, into her 70’s.
Patrons liked her sensitive, free-form arrangements
Also like the unusual, beautiful color harmonies.
Here she places the container at the center, but the composition is still asymmetrical.
Uses reds, pale oranges, pinks & yellows.
She highlights items against a dark background on the left
Paints silhouettes against a light background at the right.
Graceful & natural - curves of stems & blossoms.
Adds other small items into the arrangement, like -
Small gray moth, lower left
Shells scattered around the base of the container.
Still-lifes often have moralizing themes, like the transience of life, material possessions.
“Impossible” arrangement - the flowers here do not bloom at the same times
Could never be arranged together in reality.
Artists would make sketches of each blossom in its prime,
Then “arrange” them on the canvas.
Represents the fleeting nature of beauty and of life.
SLIDE - Jacob Van Ruisdael, View of Haarlem with Bleaching Grounds. 1665. Oil on canvas.
One of best known & highly regarded Dutch landscape painters.
Did panoramic views of Haarlem & the Dutch countryside
Any people or animals or buildings seem to be unimportant –
They’re just part of the landscape.
This is Haarlem with its bleaching grounds - familiar sights in his time.
Haarlem workers would bleach linens
One of Haarlem's major industries.
His landscapes are appealing because of the openness and height.
His skies take up 2/3 - 3/4 of the canvas
The impression of height is increased by the vertical format
Dominant, strongly modeled clouds.
The plain is shown from far away & above.
More recognizable in time & place than French Baroque landscape artists
Like Poussin or Lorrain – those were more idealized types.