Dutch Art!
Moving on from mannerism and the Baroque this week we were looking into a country in Europe we so far haven’t talked about, Holland. Immediately when I saw the title I was hooked mainly because my old History teacher was fascinated with Dutch art and how rebellious it was though it was simple scenes of everyday life.
We spoke a little about the context behind Dutch art how during 1560-1640 Holland had been at war with Spain then after it finished and Spain left the north and the south had been split up with different ideas on religion which of course influenced the art. So the north was free of religious control and were Calvinist protestants whereas the south was still under catholic control.
The main two artists we looked at during this lecture was Rubens and Rembrandt who I had heard of before but only really by name so I was interested to know more. The art of theirs which we looked at today was mainly in relation to how it showed us what society was like at the time. Though in Rembrandt's place it was about how he would portray real townspeople rather than this idyll image of them or simply classical scenes which though this he was able to connect with everyone. In this, I also found that he would sell prints of his work for cheap so these working-class people who connected with his work could buy them which I suppose was a change in art and previously it was the either the rich or religions that bought art but now it was changing so that more people were becoming interested in owning art. I think this is a big change between the past and present how today everyone is aware of the art world when back then it wasn’t as big of a thing or that’s the sense I get anyway.
We then moved onto the great land and seascapes of Dutch art. Nature became the forefront not just backdrop as people saw god in nature. The lecture was interesting to learn about and I’m happy I know more about Dutch art now.
