Art in Protestant Countries (especially Holland)

Although the Dutch and the Flemish were ethnically similar, the two countries went their separate ways in the seventeenth century. Flanders -- the country of Rubens -- was aristocratic, traditional, and largely Catholic. In contrast, Holland was a puritanical Protestant country. Protestant churches were plain without altarpieces or other religious images. Protestant artists generally avoided mythological or classical subject matter as well.

Nonetheless, Holland in the seventeenth century was a wealthy country and a major maritime power. The wealthy Dutch could afford art work -- so what were artists to depict?! Without commissions from the church (a major patron in Catholic countries) who would artists serve? Instead of commissioned work, we see the beginnings of the modern art market in Holland. Now, artists began to compete in the open market. They attempted to satisfy their middle-class Dutch customers, who preferred realistic paintings of everyday life and who bought art to decorate their homes while reflecting their social status.

In Holland, then, the process of secularization which began in the Renaissance, was completed. Dutch artists developed new types of subjects to appeal to the marketplace. These include still lives (both flower and food pieces), landscapes and seascapes, daily life interiors (called "genre" paintings), animal paintings, and group portraits.

			Note that the last of these three still lifes is by a woman painter. Women excelled in still lifes in this period, largely because these small paintings did not demand the training and studies of the nude that larger mythological or religious paintings required.
Jan Davidz de Heem Vase of Flowers 1645	Willem Claesz Heda Breakfast of Crab 1648	Clara Peeters Still Life with Pie 1611

	Jan Vermeer The Milkmaid 1655-60
	A "genre" painting. Vermeer's small paintings often depict Dutch middle-class interiors with ordinary family members engaged in commonplace activities.
	Meindert Hobbema The Water Mill 1660-70
	A Dutch landscape.
	Frans Hals Family Group in a Landscape 1630-35
	Portraits were very common commissioned paintings in seventeenth century Holland. Although the portrait began in 15th century Italy, in Holland the group portrait developed. These were important commissions for artists, giving them the opportunity to paint large works for public display. Hals is a master at organizing his composition so that the face of each member of this family is visible yet the figures are not just lined up in a boring fashion.
	The greatest of Dutch painters in the 17th century, however, was Rembrandt. Click here to study his work...