Western Civilization_ Volume B_ 1300 to 1815 - Jackson J. Spielvogel [208]
Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence//© Alinari/Art Resource,
This interest in painting scenes of everyday life is evident in the work of Judith Leyster (LESS-tur) (c. 1609– 1660), who established her own independent painting career, a remarkable occurrence in seventeenth-century Europe. Leyster became the first female member of the painting Guild of Saint Luke in Haarlem, which enabled her to set up her own workshop and take on three male pupils. Musicians playing their instruments, women sewing, children laughing while playing games, and actors performing all form the subject matter of Leyster’s paintings of everyday Dutch life.
The finest product of the golden age of Dutch painting was Rembrandt van Rijn (REM-brant vahn RYN) (1606– 1669). During his early career, Rembrandt painted opulent portraits and grandiose scenes that were often quite colorful. He was prolific and successful, but he turned away from materialistic success to follow his own artistic path; in the process, he lost public support and died bankrupt.
Judith Leyster, Laughing Children with a Cat. Although Judith Leyster was a well-known artist to her Dutch contemporaries, her fame diminished soon after her death. In the late nineteenth century, a Dutch art historian rediscovered her work. In Laughing Children with a Cat, painted in 1629, she shows two children laughing as one tickles the other, a scene repeated throughout history.
© Noortman Master Paintings, Amsterdam/The Bridgeman Art Library
Rembrandt van Rijn, Syndics of the Cloth Guild. The Dutch experienced a golden age of painting during the seventeenth century. The burghers and patricians of Dutch urban society commissioned works of art, and these quite naturally reflected the burghers’ interests, as this painting by Rembrandt illustrates.
© Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam/SuperStock
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William Shakespeare: In Praise of England
William Shakespeare is one of the most famous playwrights of the Western world. He was a universal genius, outclassing all others in his psychological insights, depth of characterization, imaginative skills, and versatility. His historical plays reflected the patriotic enthusiasm of the English in the Elizabethan era, as this excerpt from Richard II illustrates.
William Shakespeare, Richard II
This royal throne of kings, this sceptered isle,
This earth of majesty, this seat of Mars,
This other Eden, demi-Paradise,
This fortress built by Nature for herself
Against infection and the hand of war,
This happy breed of men, this little world,
This precious stone set in the silver sea,
Which serves it in the office of a wall
Or as a moat defensive to a house
Against the envy of less happier lands—
This blessed plot, this earth, this realm, this England,
This nurse, this teeming womb of royal kings,
Feared by their breed and famous by their birth,
Renowned for their deeds as far from home,
For Christian service and true chivalry,
As is the sepulcher in stubborn Jewry [the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem]
Of the world’s ransom, blessed Mary’s Son—
This land of such dear souls, this dear dear land,
Dear for her reputation through the world,
Is now leased out, I die pronouncing it,
Like a tenement or pelting farm.
England, bound in with the triumphant sea,
Whose rocky shore beats back the envious siege
Of watery Neptune, is now bound in with shame,
With inky blots and rotten parchment bonds.
That England, what was wont to conquer others,
Hath made a shamful conquest of itself.
Ah, would the scandal vanish with my life,
How happy then were my ensuing death!
Why is William Shakespeare aptly described as not merely a playwright, but a “complete man of the theater”? Which countries might Shakespeare have meant by the phrase “the envy of less happier lands”?
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Although Rembrandt shared the