Dutch painting, in fine arts
About half of the 16th table. among Dutch painters there is a desire to get rid of the shortcomings of domestic art - its Gothic angularity and dryness - by studying Italian artists of the Renaissance and combining their manner with the best traditions of their own school. This desire is already visible in the works of the aforementioned Mostert; but the main disseminator of the new movement should be considered Jan Schorel (1495-1562), who lived for a long time in Italy and later founded a school in Utrecht, from which came a number of artists infected with the desire to become Dutch Raphaels and Michelangelos. In his footsteps, Maarten van Van, nicknamed Gemskerk (1498-1574), Henryk Goltzius (1558-1616), Peter Montford, nicknamed. Blokhorst (1532-83), Cornelis v. Haarlem (1562-1638) and others belonging to the next period of the Italian school, such as, for example, Abraham Bloemaert (1564-1651), Gerard Gonthorst (1592-1662), went beyond the Alps to become imbued with the perfections of the luminaries of Italian painting, but fell , for the most part, under the influence of representatives of the decline of this painting that was beginning at that time, they returned to their homeland as mannerists, imagining that the whole essence of art lies in the exaggeration of muscles, in the pretentiousness of angles and the panache of conventional colors. However, the Italians' passion for painting, which often extended to extremes in the transitional era of Georgia, brought a kind of benefit, since it brought into this painting better, more learned drawing and the ability to manage composition more freely and boldly. Together with the Old Netherlandish tradition and boundless love for nature, Italianism became one of the elements from which the original, highly developed art of the flourishing era was formed. The onset of this era, as we have already said, should be dated to the beginning of the 17th century, when Holland, having won independence, began to live a new life. The dramatic transformation of an oppressed and poor country just yesterday into a politically important, comfortable and wealthy union of states was accompanied by an equally dramatic revolution in its art. From all sides, almost at once, they appear in countless numbers. wonderful artists, called to activity by the rise of the national spirit and the need for their work that has developed in society. To the original artistic centers, Haarlem and Leiden, new ones are added - Delft, Utrecht, Dortrecht, The Hague, Amsterdam, etc. Everywhere, the old tasks of painting are being developed in a new way under the influence of changing demands and views, and its new branches, the beginnings of which were barely noticeable in the previous period. The Reformation drove religious paintings out of churches; there was no need to decorate palaces and noble chambers with images of ancient gods and heroes, and therefore historical painting, satisfying the tastes of the rich bourgeoisie, discarded idealism and turned to an accurate reproduction of reality: it began to interpret long-past events as the events of the day that took place in Holland, and in especially took up portraiture, perpetuating in it the features of people of that time, either in single figures or in extensive, multi-figure compositions depicting rifle societies (schutterstuke), which played such a prominent role in the struggle for the liberation of the country - the managers of its charitable institutions (regentenstuke) , shop foremen and members of various corporations. If we decided to talk about all the talented portrait painters of the flourishing era of Gaul. art, then just listing their names with an indication of their best works would take many lines; therefore, we limit ourselves to mentioning only those artists who are especially outstanding from general series. These are: Michiel Mierevelt (1567-1641), his student Paulus Morelse (1571-1638), Thomas de Keyser (1596-1667) Jan van Ravesteyn (1572? - 1657), predecessors of the three greatest portrait painters of Holland - the sorcerer of chiaroscuro Rembrandt van Rijn ( 1606-69), an incomparable draftsman who had an amazing art of modeling figures in light, but somewhat cold in character and color, Bartholomew van der Gelst (1611 or 1612-70) and striking with the fugue of his brush Frans Gols the Elder (1581-1666). Of these, the name of Rembrandt shines especially brightly in history, at first held in high esteem by his contemporaries, then forgotten by them, little appreciated by posterity, and only in the current century elevated, in all fairness, to the level of world genius. In his characteristic artistic personality, everything is concentrated, as if in focus. best qualities G. painting and its influence was reflected in all its types - in portraits, historical paintings, everyday scenes and landscapes. The most famous among Rembrandt's students and followers were: Ferdinand Bol (1616-80), Govert Flinck (1615-60), Gerbrand van den Eckhout (1621-74), Nicholas Mas (1632-93), Art de Gelder (1645-1727 ), Jacob Backer (1608 or 1609-51), Jan Victors (1621-74), Carel Fabricius (c. 1620-54), Salomon and Philips Koning (1609-56, 1619-88), Pieter de Grebber, Willem de Porter († later 1645), Gerard Dou (1613-75) and Samuel van Googstraten (1626-78). In addition to these artists, to complete the list of the best portrait painters and historical painters of the period under review, one should name Jan Lievens (1607-30), Rembrandt’s fellow student of P. Lastman, Abraham van Tempel (1622-72) and Pieter Nazon (1612-91), working, apparently, under the influence of V. d. Gelsta, imitator of Hals Johannes Verspronck (1597-1662), Jan and Jacob de Braev († 1664, † 1697), Cornelis van Zeulen (1594-1664) and Nicholas de Gelta-Stokade (1614-69). Household painting, the first experiments of which appeared in the old Dutch school, found itself in the 17th century. especially fertile soil in Protestant, free, bourgeois, self-satisfied Holland. Small pictures, artlessly representing the customs and life of different classes of local society, seemed to enough people more entertaining than large works of serious painting, and, along with landscapes, more convenient for decorating cozy private homes. A whole horde of artists satisfies the demand for such pictures, without thinking long about the choice of themes for them, but conscientiously reproducing everything that is encountered in reality, showing at the same time love for their family, then good-natured humor, accurately characterizing the depicted positions and faces and refined in the mastery of technology. While some are occupied with common people's life, scenes of peasant happiness and sorrow, drinking bouts in taverns and taverns, gatherings in front of roadside inns, rural holidays, games and skating on the ice of frozen rivers and canals, etc., others take the content for their works from a more elegant circle - they paint graceful ladies in their intimate surroundings, the courtship of dandy gentlemen, housewives giving orders to their maids, salon exercises in music and singing, the revelry of golden youth in pleasure houses, etc. In the long series of artists of the first category, they excel Adrian and Izak v. Ostade (1610-85, 1621-49), Adrian Brouwer (1605 or 1606-38), Jan Stan (c. 1626-79), Cornelis Bega (1620-64), Richart Brackenburg (1650-1702), P. V. Lahr, nicknamed Bambocchio in Italy (1590-1658), Cornelis Dusart (1660-1704), Egbert van der Poel (1621-64), Cornelis Drohslot (1586-1666), Egbert v. Gemskerk (1610-80), Henrik Roques, nicknamed Sorg (1621-82), Claes Molenaar (formerly 1630-76), Jan Minse-Molenar (about 1610-68), Cornelis Saftleven (1606-81) and some. etc. Of the equally significant number of painters who reproduced the life of the middle and upper, generally sufficient, class, Gerard Terborch (1617-81), Gerard Dou (1613-75), Gabriel Metsu (1630-67), Peter de Gogh ( 1630-66), Caspar Netscher (1639-84), France c. Miris the Elder (1635-81), Eglon van der Naer (1643-1703), Gottfried Schalcken (1643-1706), Jan van der Meer of Delft (1632-73), Johannes Vercollier (1650-93), Quiring Brekelenkamp (†1668 ). Jacob Ochtervelt († 1670), Dirk Hals (1589-1656), Anthony and Palamedes Palamedes (1601-73, 1607-38), etc. The category of genre painters includes artists who painted scenes of military life, idleness of soldiers in guardhouses, camp sites , cavalry skirmishes and entire battles, dressage horses, as well as falconry and hound hunting scenes akin to battle scenes. The main representative of this branch of painting is the famous and extraordinarily prolific Philips Wouwerman (1619-68). In addition to him, her brother of this master, Peter (1623-82), Jan Asselein (1610-52), whom we will soon meet among the landscape painters, the aforementioned Palamedes, Jacob Leduc (1600 - later 1660), Henrik Verschuring (1627- 90), Dirk Stop (1610-80), Dirk Mas (1656-1717), etc. For many of these artists, landscape plays as important a role as human figures; but in parallel with them, a mass of painters are working, setting it as their main or exclusive task. In general, the Dutch have an inalienable right to be proud that their fatherland is the birthplace not only of the newest genre, but also of landscape in the sense that it is understood today. In fact, in other countries, e.g. in Italy and France, art had little interest in inanimate nature, did not find in it either a unique life or special beauty: the painter introduced landscape into his paintings only as a side element, as a decoration, among which episodes of human drama or comedy are played out, and therefore subordinated it conditions of the scene, inventing picturesque lines and spots that are beneficial to it, but without copying nature, without being imbued with the impression it inspires. In the same way he “composed” nature in those rare cases when he tried to paint a purely landscape painting. The Dutch were the first to understand that even in inanimate nature everything breathes life, everything is attractive, everything is capable of evoking thought and exciting the movement of the heart. And this was quite natural, because the Dutch, so to speak, created the nature around them with their own hands, treasured and admired it, like a father cherishes and admires his own brainchild. In addition, this nature, despite the modesty of its forms and colors, provided colorists such as the Dutch with abundant material for developing lighting motifs and aerial perspective due to the climatic conditions of the country - its steam-saturated air, softening the outlines of objects, producing a gradation of tones at different plans and covering the distance with a haze of silvery or golden fog, as well as the changeability of the appearance of areas determined by the time of year, hour of day and weather conditions. Among the landscape painters of the flowering period, the Dutch. schools that were interpreters of their domestic nature are especially respected: Jan V. Goyen (1595-1656), who, together with Esaias van de Velde (c. 1590-1630) and Pieter Moleyn the Elder. (1595-1661), considered the founder of the Goll. landscape; then this master's student, Salomon. Ruisdael († 1623), Simon de Vlieger (1601-59), Jan Wijnants (c. 1600 - later 1679), lover of the effects of better lighting Art. d. Nair (1603-77), poetic Jacob v. Ruisdael (1628 or 1629-82), Meinert Gobbema (1638-1709) and Cornelis Dekker († 1678). Among the Dutch there were also many landscape painters who embarked on travels and reproduced motifs of foreign nature, which, however, did not prevent them from maintaining a national character in their painting. Albert V. Everdingen (1621-75) depicted views of Norway; Jan Both (1610-52), Dirk v. Bergen († later 1690) and Jan Lingelbach (1623-74) - Italy; Ian V. d. Mayor the Younger (1656-1705), Hermann Saftleven (1610-85) and Jan Griffir (1656-1720) - Reina; Jan Hackart (1629-99?) - Germany and Switzerland; Cornelis Pulenenburg (1586-1667) and a group of his followers painted landscapes inspired by Italian nature, with ruins of ancient buildings, bathing nymphs and scenes of an imaginary Arcadia. In a special category we can single out masters who in their paintings combined landscapes with images of animals, giving preference to either the first or the second, or treating both parts with equal attention. The most famous among such painters of rural idyll is Paulus Potter (1625-54); Besides him, Adrian should be included here. d. Velde (1635 or 1636-72), Albert Cuyp (1620-91), Abraham Gondius († 1692) and numerous artists who turned for themes preferably or exclusively to Italy, such as: Willem Romain († later 1693), Adam Peinaker (1622-73), Jan-Baptiste Vanix (1621-60), Jan Asselein, Claes Berchem (1620-83), Karel Dujardin (1622-78), Thomas Weick (1616? -77) Frederic de Moucheron (1633 or 1634-86) and others. Closely related to the landscape is the painting of architectural views, which Dutch artists began to be practiced as an independent branch of art only in the half of the 17th century. Some of those who have since worked in this area have been sophisticated in depicting city streets and squares with their buildings; these are, among others, less significant, Johannes Bärestraten (1622-66), Job and Gerrit Werk-Heide (1630-93, 1638-98), Jan v. d. Heyden (1647-1712) and Jacob v. village Yulft (1627-88). Others, among whom the most prominent are Pieter Sanredan († 1666), Dirk v. Delen (1605-71), Emmanuel de Witte (1616 or 1617-92), wrote internal views churches and palaces. The sea was of such importance in the life of Holland that her art could not treat it except with the greatest attention. Many of its artists who dealt with landscapes, genres and even portraits, breaking away from their usual subjects for a while, became marine painters, and if we decided to list all the Dutch painters. schools depicting a calm or raging sea, ships rocking on it, harbors cluttered with ships, naval battles, etc., then we would get a very long list that would include the names of Ya. Goyen, S. de Vlieger, S. and J. Ruisdael, A. Cuyp and others already mentioned in the previous lines. Limiting ourselves to pointing out those for whom painting of marine species was a specialty, we must name Willem v. de Velde the Elder (1611 or 1612-93), his famous son V. v. de Velde the Younger (1633-1707), Ludolf Backhuisen (1631-1708), Jan V. de Cappelle († 1679) and Julius Parcellis († later 1634). Finally, the realistic direction of the Dutch school was the reason that a type of painting was formed and developed in it, which in other schools until then had not been cultivated as a special, independent branch, namely painting of flowers, fruits, vegetables, living creatures, kitchen utensils, tableware etc. - in a word, what is now commonly called “dead nature” (nature morte, Stilleben). In this area between the The most famous artists of the flourishing era were Jan-Davids de Gem (1606-83), his son Cornelis (1631-95), Abraham Mignon (1640-79), Melchior de Gondecoeter (1636-95), Maria Osterwijk (1630-93) , Willem V. Aalst (1626-83), Willem Geda (1594 - later 1678), Willem Kalf (1621 or 1622-93) and Jan Waenix (1640-1719).
Brilliant period Dutch painting did not last long - only one century. Since the beginning of the 18th century. its decline is coming, not because the Zuiderzee coast ceases to produce innate talents, but because society is increasingly weakening national identity, the national spirit evaporates and the French tastes and views of the pompous era of Louis XIV take root. In art, this cultural turn is expressed by the oblivion on the part of artists of those fundamental principles on which the originality of painters of previous generations depended, and an appeal to aesthetic principles, brought from a neighboring country. Instead of a direct relationship to nature, love of what is native and sincerity, the dominance of preconceived theories, convention, and imitation of Poussin, Lebrun, Cl. Lorrain and other luminaries of the French school. The main propagator of this regrettable trend was the Flemish Gerard de Leresse (1641-1711), who settled in Amsterdam, a very capable artist and educated in his time, who had a huge influence on his contemporaries and immediate posterity both with his mannered pseudo-historical paintings and works of his own pen, among which one - " Great book painter" ("t groot schilderboec) - for fifty years served as a code for young artists. The famous Hadrian also contributed to the decline of the school. de Werff (1659-1722), whose sleek painting with cold figures, as if carved from ivory, with a dull, powerless color, once seemed the height of perfection. Among the followers of this artist Henryk v. enjoyed fame as historical painters. Limborg (1680-1758) and Philip V.-Dyck (1669-1729), nicknamed "Little V.-Dyck". Of the other painters of the era in question, endowed with undoubted talent, but infected with the spirit of the times, it should be noted Willem and France v. Miris the Younger (1662-1747, 1689-1763), Nicholas Vercollier (1673-1746), Constantine Netscher (1668-1722), Isaac de Moucheron (1670-1744) and Carel de Maur (1656-1738). Some shine was given to the dying school by Cornelis Trost (1697-1750), primarily a cartoonist, nicknamed Dutch. Gogarth, portrait painter Jan Quincgard (1688-1772), decorative and historical painter Jacob de Wit (1695-1754) and painters of dead nature Jan V. Geysum (1682-1749) and Rachel Reisch (1664-1750).
Foreign influence weighed on Dutch painting until the twenties of the 19th century, having managed to more or less reflect in it the changes that art took in France, starting with the wigmaking of the times of the Sun King and ending with the pseudo-classicism of David. When the style of the latter became obsolete and everywhere in Western Europe, instead of the fascination with the ancient Greeks and Romans, a romantic desire was aroused, mastering both poetry and the figurative arts, the Dutch, like other peoples, turned their gaze to their antiquity, and therefore to their glorious past painting. The desire to give it again the brilliance with which it shone in the 17th century began to inspire the newest artists and returned them to the principles of the ancient national masters - to a strict observation of nature and an ingenuous, sincere attitude towards the tasks at hand. At the same time, they did not try to completely eliminate themselves from foreign influence, but when they went to study in Paris or Dusseldorf and other artistic centers in Germany, they took home only an acquaintance with the successes of modern technology. Thanks to all this, the revived Dutch school again received an original, attractive physiognomy and is moving today along the path leading to further progress. She can easily contrast many of her newest figures with the best painters of the 19th century in other countries. Historical painting in the strict sense of the word is cultivated in it, as in the old days, very moderately and has no outstanding representatives; but in part historical genre Holland can be proud of several significant recent masters, such as: Jacob Ekgout (1793-1861), Ari Lamme (b. 1812), Peter V. Schendel (1806-70), David Bles (b. 1821), Hermann ten-Cate (1822-1891) and the highly talented Lawrence Alma-Tadema (b. 1836), who deserted to England. In terms of the everyday genre, which was also included in the circle of activity of these artists (with the exception of Alma-Tadema), one can point to a number of excellent painters, headed by Joseph Israels (b. 1824) and Christoffel Bisschop (b. 1828); besides them, Michiel Verseg (1756-1843), Elhanon Vervaer (b. 1826), Teresa Schwarze (b. 1852) and Valli Mus (b. 1857) are worthy of being named. The newest goal is especially rich. painting by landscape painters who worked and work in a variety of ways, sometimes with careful completion, sometimes with the broad technique of the impressionists, but faithful and poetic interpreters of their native nature. These include Andreas Schelfgout (1787-1870), Barent Koekkoek (1803-62), Johannes Wilders (1811-90), Willem Roelofs (b. 1822), Hendrich v. de Sande-Bockhuisen (b. 1826), Anton Mauwe (1838-88), Jacob Maris (b. 1837), Lodewijk Apol (b. 1850) and many others. etc. Direct heirs of Ya. D. Heyden and E. de Witte, painters of promising views appeared, Jan Verheiden (1778-1846), Bartholomews v. Gove (1790-1888), Salomon Vervaer (1813-76), Cornelis Springer (1817-91), Johannes Bosbohm (1817-91), Johannes Weissenbruch (1822-1880), etc. Among the newest marine painters of Holland, the palm belongs to Jog. Schotel (1787-1838), Ari Plaisir (b. 1809), Hermann Koekkoek (1815-82) and Henrik Mesdag (b. 1831). Finally, Wouters Verschoor (1812-74) and Johann Gas (b. 1832) showed great skill in animal painting.
Wed. Van Eyden u. van der Willigen, "Geschiedenis der vaderlandische schilderkunst, sedert de helft des 18-de eeuw" (4 volumes, 1866) A. Woltman u. K. Woermann, "Geschichte der Malerei" (2nd and 3rd volumes, 1882-1883); Waagen, "Handbuch der deutschen und niderländischen Malerschulen" (1862); Bode, "Studien zur Geschichte der holländischen Malerei" (1883); Havard, "La peinture hollandaise" (1880); E. Fromentin, "Les maîtres d"autrefois. Belgique, Hollande" (1876); A. Bredius, "Die Meisterwerke des Rijksmuseum zu Amsterdam" (1890); P. P. Semenov, "Studies on the history of Dutch painting based on its samples located in St. Petersburg." (special appendix to magazine "Vestn. Fine Arts", 1885-90).
Details Category: Fine arts and architecture of the late 16th-18th centuries Published 02/06/2017 15:37 Views: 2667Our article will focus on two artists: Jan van Goyen And Jacob van Ruisdael.
They both lived during the era of the liberation of Holland from foreign yoke, and this was the Golden Age of Dutch painting. It was in the art of Holland that the following genres began to develop: portrait, landscape, everyday genre, still life. This was not observed then even in the outstanding centers of art - in Italy or France. Dutch art of the 17th century. became a unique phenomenon in the artistic world of Europe in the 17th century. Dutch masters paved the way for artists from other national European art schools.
Jan van Goyen (1596-1656)
Terborch "Portrait of van Goyen" (c. 1560)
Jan van Goyen is one of the first artists to depict nature naturally, simply, without embellishment. He is the creator of the national Dutch landscape. The nature of his country gave him enough subjects to last his entire life.
Jan van Goyen was born in 1596 in the city of Leiden into the family of a shoemaker.
Although Jan van Goyen spent some time in Paris in his youth, the love of simple landscape was unknown in France, so it is hardly worth talking about any influence of representatives of French painting on his work.
In his homeland he had several painting teachers, but he spent a year only in the workshop of Isaiah van de Velde, and he communicated even less with the other mentors.
Jan van Goyen "Landscape with Dunes" (1630-1635). Kunsthistorisches Museum (Vienna)
Creation
At first, Goyen painted Dutch villages or surrounding areas with their vegetation, then coastal views began to predominate in his paintings, where the sky and water occupied most of the paintings.
Jan van Goyen "View of the River" (1655). Mauritshuis (The Hague)
Trees, huts or city buildings play a secondary role in his paintings, but have a very picturesque appearance, as do small sailing and rowing ships with figures of fishermen, helmsmen and passengers.
Goyen's paintings are mostly monotonous. The artist loved the simplicity of color, but at the same time his colors were harmonious. He applied the paint in a light layer.
Jan van Goyen "View of the Merwede near Dordrecht (c. 1645). Rijksmuseum (Amsterdam)
The artist’s later works are distinguished by an almost monochrome palette, and the translucent soil gives them special depth and unique charm.
Jan van Goyen, Landscape with Two Oaks (1641). Rijksmuseum (Amsterdam)
His paintings are pleasant precisely because of their simplicity and realism. The artist created quite a lot of artistic canvases, but his work was not always rewarded in a worthy manner. Therefore, Goyen had to earn extra money in other ways: he traded tulips, was involved in the assessment and sale of works of art, real estate, and land. But attempts at entrepreneurship usually did not lead to success.
Jan van Goyen "Winter Scene on Ice"
Now his work is appreciated, and any museum considers his paintings to be valuable exhibits.
Several paintings by Jan van Goyen are also in the Hermitage: “View of the river. Maas, near Dortrecht", "Scheveningen shore, near The Hague", "Winter landscape", "View of the river. Maas”, “Village view”, “Landscape with oak tree”, etc.
Jan van Goyen "Landscape with an Oak Tree"
In addition to painting, Goyen was engaged in etching (a type of metal engraving) and drawing.
In 1632, Goyen and his family moved to The Hague, where he lived until the end of his life - until 1656.
Jacob van Ruisdael (1628/1629-1682)
Jacob Isaacs van Ruisdael was born and died in Haarlem (Netherlands). No exact portraits of him have survived. This portrait is only speculative.
Currently, Ruisdael is considered the most significant Dutch landscape artist, but during his lifetime his talent was not adequately appreciated. His teacher could have been his uncle, the artist Solomon van Ruisdael.
Ruisdael was also a practicing surgeon, working in Amsterdam.
Creation
The artist skillfully conveyed human emotions through the landscape. And for him, any component of the landscape was important: a tree branch bent by a gust of wind, a crushed blade of grass, a thundercloud, a trodden path... And all these components were harmoniously combined in his paintings into a single NATURE.
He wrote in small strokes. He loved to paint forest thickets, swamps, waterfalls, small Dutch towns or villages, and above all this - a triumphant sky. Ruisdael's landscapes are understandable to any person of any nationality, because they express the unity with nature common to all people.
Ruisdael created about 450 paintings. Other sources indicate the number of 600. Most of his landscapes are dedicated to the nature of his native Netherlands, but he also painted oak forests Germany, and waterfalls in Norway.
Dutch artists made a great contribution to the work of masters who began their activities in the 17th century and did not stop until the present time. However, they had an influence not only on their colleagues, but also on professionals in literature (Valentin Proust, Donna Tartt) and photography (Ellen Kooi, Bill Gekas and others).
Beginning of development
In 1648, Holland gained independence, but for the formation of a new state, the Netherlands had to endure an act of revenge on the part of Spain, which killed about 10 thousand people in the Flemish city of Antwerp at that time. As a result of the massacre, the inhabitants of Flanders emigrated from the territories controlled by the Spanish authorities.
Based on this, it would be logical to recognize that the impetus for independent Dutch artists came precisely from Flemish creativity.
Since the 17th century, both state and artistic branches have occurred, leading to the formation of two schools of art, separated by nationality. They had common origin, but the signs differed quite significantly. While Flanders remained under the wings of Catholicism, Holland experienced a completely new flourishing, starting with XVII century.
Dutch culture
In the 17th century, the new state had just embarked on the path of its development, completely breaking ties with the art of the past era.
The fight with Spain gradually subsided. The national mood began to be traced in popular circles as they moved away from the Catholic religion previously imposed by the authorities.
Protestant rule had a contradictory view of decoration, which led to a reduction in works on religious themes, and in the future only played into the hands of secular art.
Never before now has the real surrounding reality been depicted so often in paintings. In their works, Dutch artists wanted to show ordinary everyday life without embellishment, refined tastes and nobility.
The secular artistic explosion gave rise to such numerous directions as landscape, portrait, everyday genre and still life (the existence of which even the most developed centers of Italy and France did not know).
The Dutch artists' own vision of realism, expressed in portraits, landscapes, interior works and still life paintings, aroused interest in this skill from all levels of society.
Thus, Dutch art The 17th century was nicknamed the "Golden Age of Dutch Painting", securing its status as the most outstanding era in painting in the Netherlands.
It is important to know: there is a misconception that the Dutch school depicted only the mediocrity of human existence, but the masters of those times brazenly destroyed the framework with the help of their fantastic works (for example, “Landscape with John the Baptist” by Bloemaert).
Dutch artists of the 17th century. Rembrandt
Rembrandt Harmensz van Rijn is considered to be one of the largest artistic figures in Holland. In addition to his activities as an artist, he was also engaged in engraving and was rightfully considered a master of chiaroscuro.
His legacy is rich in individual diversity: portraits, genre scenes, still lifes, landscapes, as well as paintings on subjects of history, religion and mythology.
His ability to master chiaroscuro allowed him to enhance the emotional expressiveness and spirituality of a person.
While working on portraits, he worked on human facial expressions.
Due to the heartbreaking tragic events of his late works were filled with a dim light that exposed people’s deep experiences, as a result of which brilliant works became of no interest to anyone.
At that time, they were in fashion external beauty without attempts to dive into depth, as well as naturalism, which is at odds with frank realism.
The painting "Return" prodigal son"Every Russian lover can see with his own eyes fine arts, because this work located in the Hermitage of St. Petersburg.
Frans Hals
Frans Hals is a great Dutch artist and major portrait painter who helped introduce the genre of free writing into Russian art.
The work that brought him fame was the painting entitled “The Banquet of the Officers of the Rifle Company of St. George,” painted in 1616.
His portrait works were too natural for that time, which was at odds with the present day. Due to the fact that the artist remained misunderstood, he, like the great Rembrandt, ended his life in poverty. "The Gypsy" (1625-1630) is one of his most famous works.
Jan Steen
Jan Steen is one of the most witty and cheerful Dutch artists at first glance. Making fun of social vices, he loved to resort to the skill of satire of society. While entertaining the viewer with harmless, funny images of revelers and ladies of easy virtue, he actually warned against such a lifestyle.
The artist also had calmer paintings, for example, the work “Morning Toilet,” which at first glance seemed like an absolutely innocent action. But if you look closely at the details, you can be quite surprised by their revelations: these are traces of stockings that previously squeezed the legs, and a pot filled with something indecent at night, as well as a dog that allows itself to be right on the owner’s pillow.
In the best own works the artist was ahead of his colleagues in his elegantly skillful combination color palettes and mastery of shadows.
Other Dutch artists
This article listed only three bright people out of dozens who deserve to be on the same list with them:
So, in this article you got acquainted with Dutch artists of the 17th century and their works.
Note. In addition to artists from the Netherlands, the list also includes painters from Flanders.
15th century Dutch art
The first manifestations of Renaissance art in the Netherlands date back to the early 15th century. First paintings, which can already be classified as early Renaissance monuments, were created by the brothers Hubert and Jan van Eyck. Both of them - Hubert (died 1426) and Jan (about 1390-1441) - played decisive role in the formation of the Dutch Renaissance. Almost nothing is known about Hubert. Jan was apparently a very educated man, he studied geometry, chemistry, cartography, and carried out some diplomatic assignments for the Duke of Burgundy, Philip the Good, in whose service, by the way, his trip to Portugal took place. The first steps of the Renaissance in the Netherlands can be judged by the paintings of the brothers, executed in the 20s of the 15th century, and among them such as “Myrrh-Bearing Women at the Tomb” (possibly part of a polyptych; Rotterdam, Museum Boijmans van Beyningen), “ Madonna in the Church" (Berlin), "Saint Jerome" (Detroit, Art Institute).
The Van Eyck brothers occupy an exceptional place in contemporary art. But they weren't alone. At the same time, other painters who were stylistically and problematically related to them also worked with them. Among them, the first place undoubtedly belongs to the so-called Flemal master. Many ingenious attempts have been made to determine his true name and origin. Of these, the most convincing version is that this artist receives the name Robert Campin and a fairly developed biography. Previously called the Master of the Altar (or "Annunciation") of Merode. There is also an unconvincing point of view that attributes the works attributed to him to the young Rogier van der Weyden. It is known about Campin that he was born in 1378 or 1379 in Valenciennes, received the title of master in 1406 in Tournai, lived there, performed in addition to paintings many decorative ones, was the teacher of a number of painters (including Rogier van der Weyden, who will be discussed below, from 1426, and Jacques Darais, from 1427) and died in 1444. Kampen’s art retained everyday features in the general “pantheistic” scheme and thus turned out to be very close to the next generation of Dutch painters. The early works of Rogier van der Weyden and Jacques Darais, an author who was extremely dependent on Campin (for example, his “Adoration of the Magi” and “The Meeting of Mary and Elizabeth,” 1434–1435; Berlin), clearly reveal an interest in the art of this master, of which there is no doubt the trend of time appears.
Portrait of a young woman, 1445, Picture gallery, Berlin
St Ivo, 1450, National Gallery, London
Saint Luke painting the Madonna, 1450, Museum Groningen, Bruges
Rogier van der Weyden was born in 1399 or 1400, trained under Campin (that is, in Tournai), received the title of master in 1432, and in 1435 moved to Brussels, where he was the official painter of the city: in 1449–1450 he traveled to Italy and died in 1464. Some of the largest artists of the Dutch Renaissance studied with him (for example, Memling), and he enjoyed wide fame not only in his homeland, but also in Italy (the famous scientist and philosopher Nicholas of Cusa called him the greatest artist; later his work was noted by Dürer). The work of Rogier van der Weyden served as a nourishing basis for a wide variety of painters of the next generation. Suffice it to say that his workshop - the first such widely organized workshop in the Netherlands - had a strong influence on the unprecedented spread of the style of one master in the 15th century, ultimately reduced this style to the sum of stencil techniques and even played the role of a brake on painting at the end of the century. And yet the art of the mid-15th century cannot be reduced to the Rohir tradition, although it is closely connected with it. The other path is epitomized primarily by the works of Dirik Bouts and Albert Ouwater. They, like Rogier, are somewhat alien to pantheistic admiration for life, and their image of man is increasingly losing touch with questions of the universe - philosophical, theological and artistic questions, acquiring more and more concreteness and psychological certainty. But Rogier van der Weyden, a master of heightened dramatic sound, an artist who strove for individual and at the same time sublime images, was mainly interested in the sphere of human spiritual properties. The achievements of Bouts and Ouwater lie in the area of enhancing everyday authenticity of the image. Among formal problems, they were more interested in issues related to solving not so much expressive as visual tasks(not the sharpness of the drawing and the expression of color, but the spatial organization of the picture and the naturalness, naturalness of the light-air environment).
But before moving on to consider the work of these two painters, we should dwell on a phenomenon on a smaller scale, which shows that the discoveries of mid-century art, being both a continuation of the van Eyck-Kampen tradition and a departure from them, were in both of these qualities deeply justified. The more conservative painter Petrus Christus clearly demonstrates the historical inevitability of this apostasy, even for artists not inclined to radical discoveries. From 1444, Christus became a citizen of Bruges (he died there in 1472/1473) - that is, he saw the best works of van Eyck and was influenced by his tradition. Without resorting to the sharp aphorism of Rogier van der Weyden, Christus achieved a more individualized and differentiated characterization than van Eyck did. However, his portraits (E. Grimston - 1446, London, National Gallery; Carthusian monk - 1446, New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art) at the same time indicate a certain decline in imagery in his work. In art, the craving for the concrete, individual, and particular was becoming more and more apparent. Perhaps these tendencies were most clearly manifested in the work of Bouts. Younger than Rogier van der Weyden (born between 1400 and 1410), he was far from the dramatic and analytical nature of this master. Yet early Bouts comes largely from Rogier. The altar with “The Descent from the Cross” (Granada, Cathedral) and a number of other paintings, for example “Entombment” (London, National Gallery), indicate a deep study of the work of this artist. But the originality is already noticeable here - Bouts provides his characters with more space, he is interested not so much in the emotional environment as in the action, the very process of it, his characters are more active. The same goes for portraits. In the excellent portrait of a man (1462; London, National Gallery), prayerfully raised - although without any exaltation - eyes, a special mouth and neatly folded hands have such an individual coloring that van Eyck did not know. Even in the details you can feel this personal touch. A somewhat prosaic, but innocently real reflection lies in all the master’s works. It is most noticeable in his multi-figure compositions. And especially in his most famous work - the altar of the Louvain Church of St. Peter (between 1464 and 1467). If the viewer always perceives van Eyck’s work as a miracle of creativity, creation, then before the works of Bouts, different feelings arise. Bouts's compositional work speaks volumes about him as a director. Bearing in mind the successes of such a “director’s” method (that is, a method in which the artist’s task is to arrange characteristic characters, as if extracted from nature, to organize a scene) in subsequent centuries, one should pay attention to this phenomenon in the work of Dirk Bouts.
The next stage of Dutch art covers the last three or four decades of the 15th century - an extremely difficult time for the life of the country and its culture. This period opens with the work of Joos van Wassenhove (or Joos van Gent; between 1435–1440 - after 1476), an artist who played a significant role in the formation of new painting, but left for Italy in 1472, acclimatized there and organically became involved in Italian art. His altar with the “Crucifixion” (Ghent, Church of St. Bavo) indicates a desire for narrative, but at the same time a desire to deprive the story of cold dispassion. He wants to achieve the latter with the help of grace and decorativeness. His altar is a secular work in nature with a light color scheme based on refined iridescent tones.
This period continues with the work of a master of exceptional talent - Hugo van der Goes. He was born around 1435, became a master in Ghent in 1467 and died in 1482. Hus's earliest works include several images of the Madonna and Child, distinguished by the lyrical aspect of the image (Philadelphia, Museum of Art, and Brussels, Museum), and the painting “St. Anne, Mary and Child and the Donor” (Brussels, Museum). Developing the findings of Rogier van der Weyden, Hus sees in composition not so much a way of harmonious organization of what is depicted, but a means for concentration and revealing the emotional content of the scene. A person is remarkable to Hus only by the strength of his personal feelings. At the same time, Gus is attracted by tragic feelings. However, the image of Saint Genevieve (on the back of the Lamentation) indicates that, in search of naked emotion, Hugo van der Goes began to pay attention to its ethical significance. In the altar of Portinari, Hus tries to express his faith in the spiritual capabilities of man. But his art becomes nervous and tense. Hus's artistic techniques are varied - especially when he needs to recreate a person's spiritual world. Sometimes, as in conveying the reaction of the shepherds, he compares close feelings in a certain sequence. Sometimes, as in the image of Mary, the artist outlines the general features of the experience, according to which the viewer completes the feeling as a whole. Sometimes - in the images of a narrow-eyed angel or Margarita - he resorts to compositional or rhythmic techniques to decipher the image. Sometimes the very elusiveness of psychological expression turns into a means of characterization for him - this is how the reflection of a smile plays on the dry, colorless face of Maria Baroncelli. And pauses play a huge role - in spatial decision and in action. They provide an opportunity to mentally develop and complete the feeling that the artist outlined in the image. The character of Hugo van der Goes's images always depends on the role they are supposed to play as a whole. The third shepherd is really natural, Joseph is fully psychological, the angel to his right is almost unreal, and the images of Margaret and Magdalene are complex, synthetic and built on extremely subtle psychological gradations.
Hugo van der Goes always wanted to express and embody in his images the spiritual gentleness of a person, his inner warmth. But in essence, the artist’s last portraits indicate a growing crisis in Hus’s work, for his spiritual structure was generated not so much by an awareness of the individual qualities of a person, but by the tragic loss of the unity of man and the world for the artist. IN last job– “The Death of Mary” (Bruges, Museum) – this crisis results in the collapse of all the artist’s creative aspirations. The despair of the apostles is hopeless. Their gestures are meaningless. Floating in radiance, Christ, with his suffering, seems to justify their suffering, and his pierced palms are turned towards the viewer, and a figure of indefinite size violates the large-scale structure and sense of reality. It is also impossible to understand the extent of the reality of the apostles’ experience, for they all had the same feeling. And it’s not so much theirs as it is the artist’s. But its bearers are still physically real and psychologically convincing. Similar images will be revived later, when at the end of the 15th century in Dutch culture a hundred-year tradition came to its end (in Bosch). A strange zigzag forms the basis of the composition of the painting and organizes it: the seated apostle, the only one motionless, looking at the viewer, tilted from left to right, the prostrate Mary from right to left, Christ floating from left to right. And the same zigzag in the color scheme: the figure of the seated person is associated with Mary in color, the one lying on a dull blue cloth, in a robe also blue, but of the utmost, extreme blue, then - the ethereal, immaterial blue of Christ. And all around are the colors of the apostles’ robes: yellow, green, blue - infinitely cold, clear, unnatural. Feeling in “The Assumption” is naked. It leaves no room for hope or humanity. At the end of his life, Hugo van der Goes entered a monastery, his most recent years were marred by mental illness. Apparently, in these biographical facts one can see a reflection of the tragic contradictions that defined the master’s art. Hus's work was known and appreciated, and it attracted attention even outside the Netherlands. Jean Clouet the Elder (Master of Moulins) was greatly influenced by his art, Domenico Ghirlandaio knew and studied the Portinari altarpiece. However, his contemporaries did not understand him. Netherlandish art was steadily leaning towards a different path, and isolated traces of the influence of Hus's work only highlight the strength and prevalence of these other trends. They appeared most fully and consistently in the works of Hans Memling.
Earthly vanity, triptych, central panel,
Hell, left panel of the triptych "Earthly Vanities",
1485, Museum fine arts, Strasbourg
Hans Memling, apparently born in Seligenstadt, near Frankfurt am Main, in 1433 (died in 1494), the artist received excellent training from Rogier and, having moved to Bruges, gained wide fame there. Already relatively early works discover the direction of his quest. The principles of light and sublime received from him a much more secular and earthly meaning, and everything earthly - a certain ideal elation. An example is the altar with the Madonna, saints and donors (London, National Gallery). Memling strives to preserve the everyday appearance of his real heroes and bring his ideal heroes closer to them. The sublime principle ceases to be an expression of certain pantheistically understood general world forces and turns into a natural spiritual property of man. The principles of Memling’s work emerge more clearly in the so-called Floreins-Altar (1479; Bruges, Memling Museum), the main stage and the right wing of which are essentially free copies of the corresponding parts of Rogier’s Munich altar. He decisively reduces the size of the altar, cuts off the top and side parts of Rogier's composition, reduces the number of figures and, as it were, brings the action closer to the viewer. The event loses its majestic scope. The images of the participants lose their representativeness and acquire private features, the composition is a shade of soft harmony, and the color, while maintaining purity and transparency, completely loses Rogirov’s cold, sharp sonority. It seems to tremble with light, clear shades. Even more characteristic is the Annunciation (circa 1482; New York, Lehman collection), where Rogier’s scheme is used; The image of Mary is given features of soft idealization, the angel is significantly genre-bent, and the interior items are painted with Van Eyck-like love. At the same time, motifs of the Italian Renaissance—garlands, putti, etc.—are increasingly penetrating Memling’s work, and the compositional structure is becoming more measured and clear (triptych with “Madonna and Child, Angel and Donor,” Vienna). The artist tries to erase the line between the concrete, burgherly mundane principle and the idealizing, harmonious one.
Memling's art attracted him close attention masters of the northern provinces. But they were also interested in other features - those that were associated with the influence of Huss. The northern provinces, including Holland, lagged behind the southern ones in that period both economically and spiritually. Early Dutch painting usually did not go beyond the late medieval and provincial template, and the level of its craft never rose to the artistry of the Flemish artists. Only in the last quarter of the 15th century did the situation change thanks to the art of Hertgen tot sint Jans. He lived in Haarlem, with the Johannite monks (to which he owes his nickname - sint Jans means Saint John) and died young - twenty-eight years old (born in Leiden (?) around 1460/65, died in Haarlem in 1490-1495 ). Hertgen vaguely sensed the anxiety that worried Hus. But, without rising to his tragic insights, he discovered the soft charm of simple human feeling. He is close to Hus in his interest in the inner, spiritual world of man. Among Hertgen's major works is an altarpiece painted for the Johannites of Harlem. The right wing, now sawn on both sides, has survived from it. Its inner side represents a large multi-figure scene of mourning. Gertgen achieves both tasks set by the time: conveying warmth, humaneness of feeling and creating a vitally convincing narrative. The latter is especially noticeable on the outside of the door, where the burning of the remains of John the Baptist by Julian the Apostate is depicted. The participants in the action are endowed with exaggerated character, and the action is divided into a number of independent scenes, each of which is presented with vivid observation. Along the way, the master creates, perhaps, one of the first European art new time of group portraits: built on the principle of simple combination portrait characteristics, it anticipates the work of the 16th century. His “Family of Christ” (Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum), presented in a church interior, interpreted as a real spatial environment, provides a lot for understanding Geertgen’s work. The foreground figures remain significant, not showing any feelings, maintaining their everyday appearance with calm dignity. The artist creates images that are perhaps the most burgher in nature in the art of the Netherlands. At the same time, it is significant that Gertgen understands tenderness, sweetness and some naivety not as outwardly characteristic signs, but as certain properties of a person’s spiritual world. And this merging of the burgher sense of life with deep emotionality is an important feature of Gertgen’s work. It is no coincidence that he did not give the spiritual movements of his heroes a sublime, universal character. It’s as if he deliberately prevents his heroes from becoming exceptional. Because of this, they do not seem individual. They have tenderness and have no other feelings or extraneous thoughts; the very clarity and purity of their experiences makes them far from everyday life. However, the resulting ideality of the image never seems abstract or artificial. These features also distinguish one of the artist’s best works, “Christmas” (London, National Gallery), a small painting that conceals feelings of excitement and surprise.
Gertgen died early, but the principles of his art did not remain in obscurity. However, the Master of the Braunschweig diptych (“Saint Bavo”, Braunschweig, Museum; “Christmas”, Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum) and some other anonymous masters who are closest to him, who are closest to him, did not so much develop Hertgen’s principles as give them the character of a widespread standard. Perhaps the most significant among them is the Master of Virgo inter virgines (named after a painting in the Amsterdam Rijksmuseum depicting Mary among the holy virgins), who gravitated not so much to the psychological justification of emotion, but to the sharpness of its expression in small, rather everyday and sometimes almost deliberately ugly figures ( "Entombment", St. Louis, Museum; "Lamentation", Liverpool; "Annunciation", Rotterdam). But also. his work is more evidence of the exhaustion of a centuries-old tradition than an expression of its development.
A sharp decline in the artistic level is also noticeable in the art of the southern provinces, whose masters were increasingly inclined to be carried away by insignificant everyday details. More interesting than the others is the very narrative Master of the Legend of St. Ursula, who worked in Bruges in the 80-90s of the 15th century (“The Legend of St. Ursula”; Bruges, Convent of the Black Sisters), the unknown author of portraits of the Baroncelli spouses who are not devoid of skill (Florence, Uffizi), and also a very traditional Bruges Master of the legend of St. Lucia (Altar of St. Lucia, 1480, Bruges, Church of St. James, also polyptych, Tallinn, Museum). The formation of empty, petty art at the end of the 15th century is the inevitable antithesis of the quest of Huss and Hertgen. Man has lost the main support of his worldview - faith in the harmonious and favorable order of the universe. But if the common consequence of this was only the impoverishment of the previous concept, then a closer look revealed threatening and mysterious features in the world. To answer the insoluble questions of the time, late medieval allegories, demonology, and gloomy predictions of the Holy Scriptures were used. In conditions of growing acute social contradictions and severe conflicts, Bosch's art arose.
Hieronymus van Aken, nicknamed Bosch, was born in Hertogenbosch (died there in 1516), that is, away from the main art centers Netherlands. His early works are not without a hint of some primitiveness. But already they strangely combine a sharp and disturbing sense of the life of nature with cold grotesqueness in the depiction of people. Bosch responds to the trend of modern art - with its craving for the real, with its concretization of the image of a person, and then - the reduction of its role and significance. He takes this tendency to a certain extreme. In Bosch's art satirical or, better said, sarcastic images of the human race appear. This is his “Operation to remove the stones of stupidity” (Madrid, Prado). The operation is performed by a monk - and here an evil smile appears at the clergy. But the one to whom it is done looks intently at the viewer, and this gaze makes us involved in the action. Sarcasm grows in Bosch’s work; he imagines people as passengers on the ship of fools (the painting and drawing for it are in the Louvre). He turns to folk humor - and under his hands it takes on a dark and bitter shade.
Bosch comes to affirm the gloomy, irrational and base nature of life. He not only expresses his worldview, his sense of life, but gives it a moral and ethical assessment. "Haystack" is one of Bosch's most significant works. In this altar, a naked sense of reality is fused with allegory. The haystack alludes to the old Flemish proverb: “The world is a haystack: and everyone takes from it what they can grab”; people kiss in plain sight and play music between an angel and some devilish creature; fantastic creatures pull the cart, and the dad, the emperor, joyfully and obediently follow it ordinary people: some run ahead, rush between the wheels and die, crushed. The landscape in the distance is not fantastic or fabulous. And above everything - on a cloud - is a small Christ with his hands raised. However, it would be wrong to think that Bosch gravitates towards the method of allegorical likenings. On the contrary, he strives to ensure that his idea is embodied in the very essence of artistic decisions, so that it appears before the viewer not as an encrypted proverb or parable, but as a generalizing unconditional way of life. With a sophistication of imagination unfamiliar to the Middle Ages, Bosch populates his paintings with creatures that bizarrely combine various animal forms, or animal forms with objects of the inanimate world, placing them in obviously incredible relationships. The sky turns red, birds equipped with sails fly through the air, monstrous creatures crawl across the face of the earth. Fish with horse legs open their mouths, and next to them are rats, carrying on their backs living wooden snags from which people hatch. The horse's croup turns into a giant jug, and a tailed head sneaks somewhere on thin bare legs. Everything crawls and everything is endowed with sharp, scratching forms. And everything is infected with energy: every creature - small, deceitful, tenacious - is engulfed in an evil and hasty movement. Bosch gives these phantasmagoric scenes the greatest persuasiveness. He abandons the image of the action unfolding in the foreground and extends it to the whole world. He imparts to his multi-figure dramatic extravaganzas an eerie tone in its universality. Sometimes he introduces a dramatization of a proverb into the picture - but there is no humor left in it. And in the center he places a small defenseless figurine of St. Anthony. Such, for example, is the altar with “The Temptation of St. Anthony” on the central door made of Lisbon Museum. But then Bosch shows an unprecedentedly acute, naked sense of reality (especially in the scenes on the outer doors of the mentioned altar). In Bosch's mature works the world is limitless, but its spatiality is different - less rapid. The air seems clearer and damper. This is how “John on Patmos” is written. On the reverse side of this painting, where scenes of the martyrdom of Christ are depicted in a circle, are presented amazing landscapes: transparent, clean, with wide river expanses, high skies and others - tragic and intense (“Crucifixion”). But the more persistently Bosch thinks about people. He tries to find an adequate expression of their life. He resorts to the form of a large altar and creates a strange, phantasmagoric grandiose spectacle of the sinful life of people - the “Garden of Delights”.
The artist's latest works strangely combine the fantasy and reality of his previous works, but at the same time they are characterized by a feeling of sad reconciliation. Clots of evil creatures, previously triumphantly spreading throughout the entire field of the picture, crumble. Separate, small, they still hide under a tree, appear from quiet river streams, or run along deserted hills overgrown with grass. But they decreased in size and lost activity. They no longer attack humans. And he (still Saint Anthony) sits between them - reads, thinks (“Saint Anthony”, Prado). Bosch was not interested in the thought of one person’s position in the world. Saint Anthony in his previous works is defenseless, pitiful, but not lonely - in fact, he is deprived of that share of independence that would allow him to feel lonely. Now the landscape relates specifically to one person, and in Bosch’s work the theme of man’s loneliness in the world arises. 15th century art ends with Bosch. Bosch's work completes this stage of pure insights, then intense searches and tragic disappointments.
But the trend personified by his art was not the only one. No less symptomatic is another trend, associated with the work of a master of an immeasurably smaller scale - Gerard David. He died late - in 1523 (born around 1460). But, like Bosch, he closed the 15th century. Already his early works (“The Annunciation”; Detroit) are prosaically realistic; works from the very end of the 1480s (two paintings on the plot of the trial of Cambyses; Bruges, Museum) reveal a close connection with Bouts; better than others are compositions of a lyrical nature with a developed, active landscape environment (“Rest on the Flight to Egypt”; Washington, National Gallery). But the impossibility for the master to go beyond the boundaries of the century is most clearly visible in his triptych with the “Baptism of Christ” (early 16th century; Bruges, Museum). The closeness and miniature nature of the painting seems to be in direct conflict with the large scale of the painting. Reality in his vision is devoid of life, emasculated. Behind the intensity of the color there is neither spiritual tension nor a sense of the preciousness of the universe. The enamel style of the painting is cold, self-contained and devoid of emotional purpose.
The 15th century in the Netherlands was a time of great art. By the end of the century it had exhausted itself. New historical conditions, the transition of society to another stage of development caused a new stage in the evolution of art. It originated from the beginning of the 16th century. But in the Netherlands, with the original combination of the secular principle with religious criteria in assessing life phenomena, characteristic of their art, which comes from the van Eycks, with the inability to perceive a person in his self-sufficient greatness, outside the questions of spiritual communion with the world or with God - in the Netherlands there is a new era inevitably had to come only after the strongest and most grave crisis of the entire previous worldview. If in Italy the High Renaissance was a logical consequence of the art of the Quattrocento, then in the Netherlands there was no such connection. The transition to a new era turned out to be especially painful, since it largely entailed the denial of previous art. In Italy, a break with medieval traditions occurred as early as the 14th century, and the art of the Italian Renaissance maintained the integrity of its development throughout the Renaissance. In the Netherlands the situation was different. The use of medieval heritage in the 15th century made it difficult to apply established traditions in the 16th century. For Dutch painters, the line between the 15th and 16th centuries turned out to be associated with a radical change in their worldview.
Dutch art of the 16th century
"Burgher" Baroque in Dutch paintingXVII V. – depiction of everyday life (P. de Hooch, Vermeer). "Luxurious" still lifes by Kalf. Group portrait and its features by Hals and Rembrandt. Interpretation of mythological and biblical scenes by Rembrandt.
Dutch art of the 17th century
In the 17th century Holland has become a model capitalist country. It conducted extensive colonial trade, had a powerful fleet, and shipbuilding was one of the leading industries. Protestantism (Calvinism as its most severe form), which completely supplanted the influence of the Catholic Church, led to the fact that the clergy in Holland did not have the same influence on art as in Flanders, and especially in Spain or Italy. In Holland, the church did not play the role of a customer of works of art: churches were not decorated with altar images, for Calvinism rejected any hint of luxury; Protestant churches were simple in architecture and not decorated inside at all.
The main achievement of Dutch art of the 18th century. - in easel painting. Man and nature were the objects of observation and depiction by Dutch artists. Household painting is becoming one of the leading genres, the creators of which in history received the name “Little Dutchmen”. Painting on the Gospels and biblical stories is also represented, but not to the same extent as in other countries. In Holland there were never connections with Italy and classical art did not play such a role as in Flanders.
The mastery of realistic trends, the development of a certain range of themes, the differentiation of genres as a single process were completed by the 20s of the 17th century. History of Dutch painting of the 17th century. perfectly demonstrates the evolution of the work of one of the largest portrait painters in Holland, Frans Hals (circa 1580-1666). In the 10-30s, Hals worked a lot in the genre of group portraits. From the canvases of these years, cheerful, energetic, enterprising people look out, confident in their abilities and in the future (“The Shooting Guild of St. Adrian”, 1627 and 1633;
"Rifle Guild of St. George", 1627).
Researchers sometimes call Hals's individual portraits genre portraits due to the special specificity of the image. Hulse's sketchy style, his bold writing, when the brushstroke sculpts both shape and volume and conveys color.
In the portraits of Hals of the late period (50-60s), the carefree prowess, energy, and intensity in the characters of the depicted persons disappear. But it was in the late period of creativity that Hals reached the pinnacle of mastery and created the most profound works. The coloring of his paintings becomes almost monochrome. Two years before his death, in 1664, Hals again returned to the group portrait. He paints two portraits of the regents and regents of a nursing home, in one of which he himself found refuge at the end of his life. In the portrait of the regents there is no spirit of camaraderie of previous compositions, the models are disunited, powerless, they have dull looks, devastation is written on their faces.
Hals's art was of great importance for its time; it influenced the development of not only portraits, but also everyday genres, landscapes, and still lifes.
The landscape genre of 17th century Holland is especially interesting. Holland is depicted by Jan van Goyen (1596-1656) and Salomon van Ruisdael (1600/1603-1670).
The heyday of landscape painting in the Dutch school dates back to the middle of the 17th century. The greatest master of realistic landscape was Jacob van Ruisdael (1628/29-1682). His works are usually full of deep drama, whether he depicts forest thickets (“Forest Swamp”),
landscapes with waterfalls (“Waterfall”) or a romantic landscape with a cemetery (“Jewish Cemetery”).
Ruisdael's nature appears in dynamics, in eternal renewal.
The animalistic genre is closely related to the Dutch landscape. Albert Cuyp's favorite motif is cows at a watering hole (“Sunset on the River”, “Cows on the Bank of a Stream”).
Still life achieves brilliant development. Dutch still life, unlike Flemish still life, is a painting of an intimate nature, modest in size and motifs. Pieter Claes (c. 1597-1661), Billem Heda (1594-1680/82) most often depicted so-called breakfasts: dishes with ham or pie on a relatively modestly served table. Kheda’s “breakfasts” are replaced by Kalf’s luxurious “desserts.” Simple utensils are replaced by marble tables, carpet tablecloths, silver goblets, vessels made of mother-of-pearl shells, and crystal glasses. Kalf achieves amazing virtuosity in conveying the texture of peaches, grapes, and crystal surfaces.
In the 20-30s of the 17th century. The Dutch created a special type of small small-figure painting. The 40-60s were the heyday of painting, glorifying the calm burgher life of Holland, measured everyday existence.
Adrian van Ostade (1610-1685) initially depicts the shadow sides of the life of the peasantry (“The Fight”).
Since the 40s, satirical notes in his work have increasingly been replaced by humorous ones (“In a village tavern”, 1660).
Sometimes these small paintings are colored with a great lyrical feeling. Ostade’s “Painter in the Studio” (1663), in which the artist glorifies creative work, is rightfully considered a masterpiece of Ostade’s painting.
But the main theme of the “little Dutch” is still not peasant life, but burgher life. Usually these are images without any fascinating plot. The most entertaining narrator in films of this kind was Jan Stan (1626-1679) (“Revelers”, “Game of Backgammon”). Gerard Terborch (1617-1681) achieved even greater mastery in this.
The interior of the “little Dutch” becomes especially poetic. The real singer of this theme was Pieter de Hooch (1629-1689). His rooms with a half-open window, with shoes accidentally thrown or a broom left behind, are often depicted without a human figure.
A new stage of genre painting begins in the 50s and is associated with the so-called Delft school, with the names of such artists as Carel Fabricius, Emmanuel de Witte and Jan Wermeer, known in art history as Wermeer of Delft (1632-1675). Vermeer's paintings seem to be in no way original. These are the same images of frozen burgher life: reading a letter, a gentleman and a lady talking, maids doing simple housework, views of Amsterdam or Delft. These paintings are simple in action: “Girl Reading a Letter”,
"The gentleman and the lady at the spinet"
“The Officer and the Laughing Girl”, etc. - are full of spiritual clarity, silence and peace.
The main advantages of Vermeer as an artist are in the transmission of light and air. The dissolution of objects in a light-air environment, the ability to create this illusion, primarily determined the recognition and glory of Vermeer precisely in the 19th century.
Vermeer did something that no one did in the 17th century: he painted landscapes from life (“Street”, “View of Delft”).
They can be called the first examples of plein air painting.
The pinnacle of Dutch realism, the result of the pictorial achievements of Dutch culture in the 17th century, is the work of Rembrandt. Harmens van Rijn Rembrandt (1606-1669) was born in Leiden. In 1632, Rembrandt left for Amsterdam, the center of artistic culture in Holland, which naturally attracted young artist. The 30s were the time of his greatest glory, the path to which was opened for the painter by a large commissioned painting of 1632 - a group portrait, also known as “The Anatomy of Doctor Tulp”, or “Anatomy Lesson”.
In 1634, Rembrandt married a girl from a wealthy family, Saskia van Uylenborch. The happiest period of his life begins. He becomes a famous and fashionable artist.
This entire period is shrouded in romance. Rembrandt’s worldview of these years is conveyed most clearly by the famous “Self-Portrait with Saskia on her Knees” (circa 1636). The whole canvas is permeated with frank joy of life and jubilation.
The Baroque language is closest to the expression of high spirits. And Rembrandt during this period was largely influenced by the Italian Baroque.
The characters in the 1635 painting “The Sacrifice of Abraham” appear before us from complex angles. The composition is highly dynamic, built according to all the rules of the Baroque.
In the same 30s, Rembrandt first began to seriously engage in graphics, primarily etching. Rembrandt's etchings are mainly of biblical and evangelical subjects, but in his drawings, as a true Dutch artist, he often turns to the genre. At the turn of the early period of the artist’s work and his creative maturity, one of his most famous paintings appears before us, known as “The Night Watch” (1642) - a group portrait of the rifle company of Captain Banning Cock.
He expanded the scope of the genre, presenting rather a historical picture: upon an alarm signal, Banning Cock's detachment sets out on a campaign. Some are calm and confident, others are excited in anticipation of what is to come, but all bear the expression of general energy, patriotic enthusiasm, and the triumph of the civic spirit.
The group portrait painted by Rembrandt developed into a heroic image of the era and society.
The painting had already become so dark that it was considered to be a depiction of a night scene, hence its incorrect name. The shadow cast by the captain's figure on the lieutenant's light clothes proves that it is not night, but day.
With the death of Saskia in the same 1642, Rembrandt’s natural break with the patrician circles alien to him occurred.
The 40s and 50s are a time of creative maturity. During this period, he often turns to previous works in order to remake them in a new way. This was the case, for example, with “Danae,” which he painted back in 1636. By turning to the painting in the 40s, the artist intensified his emotional state.
He rewrote the central part with the heroine and the maid. Giving Danae a new gesture of a raised hand, he conveyed to her great excitement, an expression of joy, hope, appeal.
In the 40-50s, Rembrandt's mastery grew steadily. He chooses for interpretation the most lyrical, poetic aspects of human existence, that humanity that is eternal, all-human: maternal love, compassion. The Holy Scripture provides him with the most material, and from it - scenes of the life of the Holy Family. Rembrandt depicts simple life, ordinary people, as in the painting “The Holy Family”.
The last 16 years are the most tragic years of Rembrandt's life; he is ruined and has no orders. But these years were full of amazing creative activity, as a result of which picturesque images were created, exceptional in their monumental character and spirituality, deeply philosophical works. Even the small-sized works of Rembrandt from these years create the impression of extraordinary grandeur and true monumentality. The color acquires sonority and intensity. His colors seem to radiate light. Portraits of late Rembrandt are very different from portraits of the 30s and even 40s. These are extremely simple (half-length or generational) images of people close to the artist in their inner structure. Rembrandt achieved the greatest subtlety of characterization in his self-portraits, of which about a hundred have come down to us. The final piece in the history of group portraits was Rembrandt’s depiction of the elders of the cloth workshop - the so-called “Sindics” (1662), where, with meager means, Rembrandt created living and at the same time different human types, but most importantly, he was able to convey a sense of spiritual union, mutual understanding and interconnections between people.
During his mature years (mostly in the 50s), Rembrandt created his best etchings. As an etcher, he has no equal in world art. In all of them the images have a deep philosophical meaning; they tell about the mysteries of existence, about the tragedy of human life.
He does a lot of drawing. Rembrandt left behind 2000 drawings. These include sketches from life, sketches for paintings and preparations for etchings.
In the last quarter of the 17th century. the decline of the Dutch school of painting begins, the loss of its national identity, and from the beginning XVIII century The end of the great era of Dutch realism is coming.