The Dutch Golden Age: Contemporaries of Rembrandt and Vermeer

Outstanding lecture.

the first two paintings show. ; something I before see in Victorian England. that the upper classes use painters to show a totally fake and bullshit way the upper classes treat and lack of respect to the lower classes ; and fake way those classes interact and fake social mobility; fake social mobility; the same way celebrities beckham and myrus and the stinking cardacians do today mouthing off all kinds of bull ; my key sentence there in these paintings the fake way that the classes interact; you never saw a happy functioning buzz like that ; not at all; those guys would be down the mines nowhere near the door of the upper classes

Frans Hals captures every expression in his work. To my eye no other Dutch artist captured the nuance in facial expression and complexion.

This makes me miss my university days - studied art history. Thank you for the upload - really appreciate it!

Great talk! ⚡️

45.30 In addition, it was a bit more than a tradition. There were more reasons but the Dutch revolted against the Inquisition with it's bloody and cruel methods. Both protestants and catholics opposed it. Freedom of conscience was codified in the 1579 Union of Utrecht. So the country had just freed itself from religious dictatorship and religion as a private matter was left alone. There was still the public matter of which protestant denomination was in charge and the public matter of religious ceremony. It differed per city but especially the catholics had to keep a low profile with catholic Spain not recognizing Dutch independence for half the 17th century and continuing the religious war.
But there was no risk of the jews teaming up with Spain, otherwise challenging protestant power or trying to convert protestants. So the jews were allowed to build the biggest synagogue in the world in Amsterdam and show off. But the Sephardic jews from Portugal and Spain were just one of many groups of immigrants, generally wealthy but so were lots of other immigrants. It's not like the Netherlands was some backward swamp, it had been prospering for 2 centuries and was the cash cow of Spain until the revolt, so besides maybe some invidual maps there was no special contribution to be mentioned. Rembrandt portrayed quite a few jews and he was expensive, so they faired well.
There were several reasons why the Germans managed to kill so many Dutch jews and German jew refugees, but the centuries old sense of safety surely didn't, they nor the gentile Dutch were prepared for the worst or could even imagine the worst.

It's Jan Steen not Yann Stain

Vermeer is about light seeping into the room onto people and objects. Hopper is more about space, though each painting has these qualities of space and light. Space has more lighter colours in the distance due to moisture and strong colour in the foreground called aerial perspective. Strong light penetrates into a room and depletes. It is good to compare different painting and find similarities.

Amazing video! I love anything with art and learning more about the Dutch golden age was truly fascinating 🤍🤍🤍

amazing lecture and answers for questions

The pronunciation of Dutch names is a total disgrace!

The old mfa logo was so much lovelier 😒

Beautiful