Amsterdam (Rough Guide) - Martin Dunford [189]
Dutch art | The Golden Age | Landscapes |
The specialists
Of a number of specialist seventeenth-century painters who can be included here, Paulus Potter (1625–54) is rated as the best painter of domestic animals. He produced a surprisingly large number of paintings in his short life, the most reputed being his lovingly executed pictures of cows and horses. The accurate rendering of architectural features also became a specialized field in which Pieter Saenredam (1597–1665), with his finely realized paintings of Dutch church interiors, is the most widely known exponent. Emanuel de Witte (1616–92) continued in the same vein, though his churches lack the austere crispness of Saenredam’s. Gerrit Berckheyde (1638–98) worked in Haarlem soon after, but he limited his views to the outside of buildings, producing variations on the same townscapes. Nautical scenes in praise of the Dutch navy were, on the other hand, the speciality of Willem van der Velde II (1633–1707), whose melodramatic canvases, complete with churning seas and chasing skies, are displayed to greatest advantage in the Nederlands Scheepvaartmuseum in Amsterdam (see "The Nederlands Scheepvaartmuseum") – or at least will be again when it reopens.
A further thriving category of seventeenth-century painting was the still life, in which objects were gathered together to remind the viewer of the transience of human life and the meaninglessness of worldly pursuits. Thus, a skull would often be shown alongside a book, pipe or goblet, and some half-eaten food. Two Haarlem painters dominated this field: Pieter Claesz (1598–1660) and Willem Heda (1594–1680), who confined themselves almost entirely to this type of painting.
Dutch art | The Golden Age |
Rubens and his followers
Down in the south, in Antwerp, Pieter Paul Rubens (1577–1640) was easily the most important exponent of the Baroque in northern Europe. Born in Siegen, Westphalia, he was raised in Antwerp, where he entered the painters’ Guild in 1598. Two years later, he became court painter to the Duke of Mantua and thereafter he travelled extensively in Italy, absorbing the art of the High Renaissance and classical architecture. By the time of his return to Antwerp in 1608 he had acquired an enormous artistic vocabulary and, like his Dutch contemporaries, the paintings of Caravaggio were to greatly influence his work. His first major success was The Raising of the Cross, painted in 1610 and displayed today in Antwerp cathedral. A large, dynamic work, it caused a sensation at the time, establishing Rubens’ reputation and leading to a string of commissions that enabled him to set up his own studio.
The division of labour in Rubens’ studio, and the talent of the artists working there (who included Anthony van Dyck and Jacob Jordaens – see "Rubens’ pupils") ensured an extraordinary output of excellent work. The degree to which Rubens personally worked on a canvas would vary – and would determine its price. From the early 1620s onwards he turned his hand to a plethora of themes and subjects – religious works, portraits, tapestry designs, landscapes, mythological scenes, ceiling paintings – each of which was handled with supreme vitality and virtuosity. From his Flemish antecedents he inherited an acute sense of light, and used it not to dramatize his subjects (a technique favoured by Caravaggio and other Italian artists), but in association with colour and form. The drama in his works comes from the vigorous animation of his characters. His large-scale allegorical works, especially, are packed with heaving, writhing