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. The first paintings that 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 brothers’ paintings, 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 Beiningen), “ 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.
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 greatest 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; Dürer later noted his work ). 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 the 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).
Portrait of a young woman, 1445, Art Gallery, Berlin
St Ivo, 1450, National Gallery, London
Saint Luke painting the image of the Madonna, 1450, Museum Groningen, Bruges
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 features, as if extracted from nature, characters, organize the 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 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. Artistic techniques Gusa is varied - especially when he needs to recreate the spiritual world of a person. 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 latest 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 the last work - “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 have 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-old tradition (in Bosch) came to its end. 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 last 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 the features of soft idealization, the angel is significantly genre-dressed, 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 at the same time provincial template, and the level of its craft never rose to artistry 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 Gus with his interest in the inner, spiritual world person. 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. The man has lost main support 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 's-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 pope, the emperor, and ordinary people joyfully and obediently follow it: 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 angry 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 Saint Anthony” on the central door from the 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, amazing landscapes are presented: transparent, clean, with wide river spaces, 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 that previously triumphantly spread throughout the entire field of the picture are scattered. 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. Usage 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.
Fruit and fly
Artist Jan Van Huysum, great artist and master Dutch still life, lived at the end of the seventeenth - beginning of the eighteenth century, and was extremely popular among his contemporaries.
Very little is known about the life and work of Jan van Huysum. He was born into the family of the artist Justus van Huysum Sr., his three brothers were also artists. In 1704 Jan Van Huysum married Margaret Schouten.
Portrait of Jan van Huysum by Arnold Bonen, circa 1720
The artist very quickly became famous artist and a recognized master of Dutch still life. Crowned heads decorated their chambers and state rooms with paintings by the master. Jan Van Huysum's works were not available to the rest of the public. The fact is that the master worked on each painting for a very long time. And his works were very expensive - tens of times more expensive than paintings by Rembrandt, Jan Steen and Albert Cuyp.
Each painting consists of dozens of layers of transparent paint and meticulously painted details: layer by layer and stroke by stroke. Thus, over the course of several years, this master’s still life was born.
Jan van Huysum's brushes include several quite interesting landscapes, but the artist's main theme is still lifes. Experts divide Jan Van Huysum's still lifes into two groups: still lifes on a light background and still lifes on a dark background. “Light still lifes” require more “mature” skill from the artist - experience and talent are needed for competent light modeling. However, these are already details.
Better look at these works. They are truly wonderful.
Paintings by artist Jan Van Huysum
Fruits, flowers and insects
Mallows and other flowers in a vase
Flowers and fruits
Vase with Flowers
Flowers and fruits
Vase with Flowers
Flowers and fruits
Flowers in a terracotta vase
Vase with flowers in a niche
Fruits and flowers
Basket with flowers and butterflies
The Netherlands is a historical region occupying part of the vast lowlands on the northern European coast from the Gulf of Finland to the English Channel. Currently, this territory includes the states of the Netherlands (Holland), Belgium and Luxembourg.
After the collapse of the Roman Empire, the Netherlands became a motley collection of large and small semi-independent states. The most significant among them were the Duchy of Brabant, the counties of Flanders and Holland, and the Bishopric of Utrecht. In the north of the country, the population was mainly German - Frisians and Dutch; in the south, the descendants of the Gauls and Romans - the Flemings and Walloons - predominated.
The Dutch worked selflessly with their special talent of “doing the most boring things without boredom,” as the French historian Hippolyte Taine put it about these people, completely devoted to everyday life. They did not know sublime poetry, but they revered the simplest things all the more reverently: a clean, comfortable home, a warm hearth, modest but tasty food. The Dutchman is accustomed to looking at the world as a huge house in which he is called upon to maintain order and comfort.
Main features of Dutch Renaissance art
Common to the art of the Renaissance in Italy and in the countries of Central Europe is the desire for a realistic depiction of man and the world around him. But these problems were solved differently due to the differences in the nature of cultures.For Italian artists The Renaissance was important to generalize and create an ideal, from the point of view of humanism, image of a person. Science played an important role for them - artists developed theories of perspective and the doctrine of proportions.
Dutch masters were attracted by the diversity of people's individual appearance and the richness of nature. They do not strive to create a generalized image, but convey what is characteristic and special. Artists do not use theories of perspective and others, but convey the impression of depth and space, optical effects and the complexity of light and shadow relationships through careful observation.
They are characterized by a love for their land and amazing attention to all the little things: to their native northern nature, to the peculiarities of everyday life, to the details of the interior, costumes, to the difference in materials and textures...
Dutch artists reproduce the smallest details with utmost care and recreate the sparkling richness of colors. These new painting problems could only be solved with the help of a new technique of oil painting.
The discovery of oil painting is attributed to Jan van Eyck. From the mid-15th century, this new “Flemish manner” replaced the old tempera technique in Italy. It is no coincidence that on the Dutch altars, which are a reflection of the entire Universe, you can see everything that it consists of - every blade of grass and tree in the landscape, architectural details of cathedrals and city houses, stitches of embroidered ornaments on the robes of saints, as well as a host of other, very small, details.
The art of the 15th century is the golden age of Dutch painting.
Its brightest representative Jan Van Eyck. OK. 1400-1441.
The greatest master of European painting:
opened with his creativity new era Early Renaissance in Dutch art.
He was the court artist of the Burgundian Duke Philip the Good.
He was one of the first to master the plastic and expressive capabilities of oil painting, using thin transparent layers of paint placed one on top of the other (the so-called Flemish style of multi-layer transparent painting).
Van Eyck's largest work was the Ghent Altarpiece, which he executed together with his brother.
The Ghent Altarpiece is a grandiose multi-tiered polyptych. Its height in the central part is 3.5 m, width when opened is 5 m.
On the outside of the altar (when it is closed) is the daily cycle:
- in the bottom row the donors are depicted - townsman Jodok Veidt and his wife, praying in front of the statues of Saints John the Baptist and John the Evangelist, patrons of the church and chapel.
- above is the scene of the Annunciation, with the figures of the Mother of God and the Archangel Gabriel separated by the image of a window in which the city landscape emerges.
The festive cycle is depicted on the inside of the altar.
When the altar doors open, a truly stunning transformation takes place before the viewer’s eyes:
- the size of the polyptych is doubled,
- the picture of everyday life is instantly replaced by the spectacle of earthly paradise.
- the cramped and gloomy closets disappear, and the world seems to open up: the spacious landscape lights up with all the colors of the palette, bright and fresh.
The painting of the festive cycle is dedicated to the theme, rare in Christian fine art, of the triumph of the transformed world, which should come after the Last Judgment, when evil will be finally defeated and truth and harmony will be established on earth.
In the top row:
- in the central part of the altar, God the Father is depicted sitting on a throne,
- the Mother of God and John the Baptist are seated to the left and right of the throne,
- then on both sides there are singing and playing music angels,
- the naked figures of Adam and Eve close the row.
The bottom row of paintings depicts a scene of worship of the Divine Lamb.
- in the middle of the meadow rises an altar, on it stands a white Lamb, blood flows from his pierced chest into a chalice
- closer to the viewer there is a well from which living water flows. 
Hieronymus Bosch (1450 - 1516)
The connection of his art with folk traditions and folklore.
In his works he intricately combined the features of medieval fiction, folklore, philosophical parables and satire.
He created multi-figure religious and allegorical compositions, paintings on themes folk proverbs, sayings and parables.
Bosch's works are filled with numerous scenes and episodes, vivid and bizarre-fantastic images and details, full of irony and allegory.
Bosch's work had a huge influence on the development of realistic trends in Dutch painting of the 16th century.
Composition “Temptation of St. Anthony" is one of the artist’s most famous and mysterious works. The master’s masterpiece was the triptych “The Garden of Delights,” an intricate allegory that has received many different interpretations. During the same period, the triptychs “The Last Judgment”, “Adoration of the Magi”, compositions “St. John on Patmos", "John the Baptist in the Wilderness".
The late period of Bosch’s work includes the triptych “Heaven and Hell”, the compositions “The Tramp”, “Carrying the Cross”.
Most of Bosch's paintings from his mature and late period are bizarre grotesques containing deep philosophical overtones.
The large triptych “Hay Wagon”, highly appreciated by Philip II of Spain, dates back to the artist’s mature period of creativity. The altar composition is probably based on an old Dutch proverb: “The world is a haystack, and everyone tries to grab as much as they can from it.”
Temptation of St. Antonia. Triptych. Central part Wood, oil. 131.5 x 119 cm (central part), 131.5 x 53 cm (leaf) National Museum of Ancient Art, Lisbon 
Garden of Delights. Triptych. Around 1485. Central part
Wood, oil. 220 x 195 cm (central part), 220 x 97 cm (leaf) Prado Museum, Madrid
Dutch art of the 16th century. marked by the emergence of interest in antiquity and the activities of the masters of the Italian Renaissance. At the beginning of the century, a movement based on imitation of Italian models emerged, called “Romanism” (from Roma, the Latin name for Rome).
The pinnacle of Dutch painting in the second half of the century was creativity Pieter Bruegel the Elder. 1525/30-1569. Nicknamed Muzhitsky.
He created a deeply national art based on Dutch traditions and local folklore.
Played a huge role in the formation of the peasant genre and the national landscape. In Bruegel's work, rough folk humor, lyricism and tragedy, realistic details and fantastic grotesque, interest in detailed storytelling and the desire for broad generalization are intricately intertwined.
In Bruegel's works there is a closeness to the moralizing performances of medieval folk theater.
The jester's duel between Maslenitsa and Lent is a common scene of fair performances held in the Netherlands during winter farewell days.
Everywhere life is in full swing: there are round dances, windows are washed here, some play dice, others trade, someone begs for alms, someone is being taken to be buried...
Proverbs. 1559. The painting is a kind of encyclopedia of Dutch folklore.
Bruegel's characters lead each other by the nose, sit between two chairs, bang their heads against the wall, hang between heaven and earth... The Dutch proverb “And there are cracks in the roof” is close in meaning to the Russian “And the walls have ears.” The Dutch “throw money into the water” means the same as the Russian “waste money”, “throw money down the drain”. The whole picture is dedicated to the waste of money, effort, and entire life - here they cover the roof with pancakes, shoot arrows into the void, shear pigs, warm themselves with the flames of a burning house and confess to the devil.
The whole earth had one language and one dialect. Moving from the east, they found a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there. And they said to each other: “Let’s make bricks and burn them with fire.” And they used bricks instead of stones, and earthen tar instead of lime. And they said: “Let us build ourselves a city and a tower whose height reaches to heaven, and make a name for ourselves before we are scattered over the face of the earth. And the Lord came down to see the city and the tower which the sons of men were building. And the Lord said: “Behold, there is one people, and they all have one language, and this is what they began to do, and they will not give up on what they have planned to do. Let us go down and confuse their language there, so that one does not understand the speech of the other.” And the Lord scattered them from there over all the earth; and they stopped building the city and the tower. Therefore the name was given to it: Babylon, for there the Lord confused the language of the whole earth, and from there the Lord scattered them throughout the whole earth (Genesis, chapter 11). In contrast to the colorful bustle of Bruegel's early works, this painting amazes the viewer with its calm. The tower depicted in the picture resembles the Roman amphitheater Colosseum, which the artist saw in Italy, and at the same time - an anthill. On all floors of the huge structure, tireless work is in full swing: blocks are rotating, ladders are thrown, figures of workers are scurrying about. It is noticeable that the connection between the builders has already been lost, probably due to the “mixing of languages” that has begun: somewhere construction is underway full swing, and somewhere the tower has already turned into ruins.
After Jesus was handed over to be crucified, the soldiers put a heavy cross on Him and took Him to the place of execution called Golgotha. On the way, they captured Simon of Cyrene, who was returning home from the field, and forced him to bear the cross for Jesus. Many people followed Jesus, among them were women who wept and lamented for Him. “Carrying the Cross” is a religious, Christian picture, but it is no longer a church picture. Bruegel correlated the truths of Holy Scripture with personal experience, reflected on biblical texts, gave them his own interpretation, i.e. openly violated the imperial decree of 1550 in force at that time, which, on pain of death, prohibited independent study of the Bible.
Bruegel creates a series of landscapes “The Months”. “Hunters in the Snow” is December-January.
For a master, each season is, first of all, a unique state of the earth and sky.
A crowd of peasants, captivated by the rapid rhythm of the dance.
Flemish painting - one of the classical schools in history visual arts. Anyone interested in classical drawing has heard this phrase, but what is behind such a noble name? Could you, without hesitation, identify several features of this style and name the main names? In order to more confidently navigate the halls major museums and be a little less shy about the distant 17th century, you need to know this school.
History of the Flemish School
The 17th century began with an internal split in the Netherlands due to religious and political struggle for the internal freedom of the state. This led to a split in cultural sphere. The country splits into two parts, southern and northern, whose painting begins to develop in different directions. Southerners who remained in the Catholic faith under Spanish rule become representatives Flemish school, while northern artists are regarded by art critics as Dutch school .
Representatives of the Flemish school of painting continued the traditions of their older Italian colleagues-artists of the Renaissance: Raphael Santi, Michelangelo Buonarroti, who paid great attention religious and mythological themes. Moving along a familiar track, complemented by inorganic rough elements of realism, Dutch artists could not create outstanding works of art. The stagnation continued until he stood up at the easel Peter Paul Rubens(1577-1640). What was so amazing that this Dutchman could bring to art?
Famous master
Rubens' talent was able to breathe life into the painting of the southerners, which was not very remarkable before him. Closely familiar with heritage Italian masters, the artist continued the tradition of turning to religious themes. But, unlike his colleagues, Rubens was able to harmoniously weave features into classical plots own style, gravitating towards the richness of colors, the depiction of nature filled with life.
From the artist's paintings, as from open window as if it's spilling sunlight(“The Last Judgment”, 1617). Unusual solutions for constructing a composition of classical episodes from the Holy Scriptures or pagan mythology attracted attention to new talent among his contemporaries, and still do. Such innovation looked fresh in comparison with the gloomy, muted shades of the paintings of his Dutch contemporaries.
Characteristic feature steel and models by a Flemish artist. Plump fair-haired ladies, painted with interest without inappropriate embellishment, often became central heroines paintings by Rubens. Examples can be found in the paintings “The Judgment of Paris” (1625), "Susanna and the Elders" (1608), "Venus in front of the mirror"(1615), etc.
In addition, Rubens contributed influence on the formation of the landscape genre. He began to develop in the painting of Flemish artists to the main representative of the school, but it was the work of Rubens that set the main features of national landscape painting, reflecting the local color of the Netherlands.
Followers
Rubens, who quickly became famous, soon found himself surrounded by imitators and students. The master taught them to use folk characteristics locality, color, to glorify, perhaps, unusual human beauty. This attracted spectators and artists. Followers tried their hand at different genres- from portraits ( Gaspare De Caine, Abraham Janssens) to still lifes (Frans Snyders) and landscapes (Jan Wildens). Household painting Flemish school originally performed Adrian Brouwer And David Teniers Jr.
One of Rubens' most successful and notable students was Anthony Van Dyck(1599 - 1641). His author's style developed gradually, at first completely subordinated to imitation of his mentor, but over time he became more careful with paints. The student had a penchant for gentle, muted shades in contrast to the teacher.
Van Dyck's paintings make it clear that he did not have a strong inclination to build complex compositions, volumetric spaces with heavy figures, which distinguished his teacher's paintings. The gallery of the artist’s works is filled with single or paired portraits, ceremonial or intimate, which speaks to the author’s genre priorities that are different from Rubens.
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, which leads to the formation of two schools of art, differentiated by nationality. They had a common origin, but were quite different in their characteristics. While Flanders remained under the wings of Catholicism, Holland experienced a completely new prosperity, starting from the 17th 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.
So the Dutch art XVII century was nicknamed the "Golden Age" Dutch painting", securing its status as the most outstanding era in Dutch painting.
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, the fashion was for external beauty without attempts to dive into depth, as well as naturalism, which was at odds with frank realism.
Every Russian lover of fine art can see the painting “The Return of the Prodigal Son” with his own eyes, since 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 art 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 act. 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.