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Dutch Republic during the Golden Age

The 17th century is known in Dutch history as the 'Golden Age' because it marked a period

of unprecedented cultural flowering and economic growth in the Low Countries. This was in

stark contrast to the economic stagnation and decline experienced elsewhere in Europe right

through to 1750. In the Republic, the new political structures put in place in the 16th century

were expanded and refined. They were dominated not so much by the nobility or the clergy,as elsewhere in Europe, but by middle-class elite drawn mainly from the wealthy merchant

families and known in Dutch history as the regent class. Consequently, political decisions

were taken less (as in neighboring countries like England or France) with a view to gaining

greater power or influence in Europe or elsewhere in the world, than to promote or safeguard

the nation's trading interests. Amsterdam evolved into the world's leading port and

commercial centre. The key to its success was its status as an entry port, indispensable to the

selling on, transhipment, warehousing and processing of imported products.

Around 1670 the Republic had some 2,000 large cargo vessels many times the number in

the English merchant fleet. This gave it a virtual monopoly of the carrying trade around the

world. The economy benefited particularly from trade with distant lands. Spices, pepper,silks and cottons were imported from the East Indies, Bengal, Ceylon and Malacca, while

the triangular trade between the west coast of Africa, Brazil and the Caribbean, and Europe

was chiefly in plantation goods like sugar, salt, tobacco and brazil wood. Later, slaves were

added to the list. Initially, the Dutch merchantmen sailed to Africa solely in search of gold

and ivory and eschewed the slave trade. But eventually they came to accept it as a fact of

life. To justify their dealings in slaves, they turned to the Bible and claimed that Africans

were the sons and daughters of Ham, who was cursed and condemned to servitude by his

father, Noah, and had (they said) passed on the curse to the whole population of Africa.

The status of Amsterdam as the financial capital of the world was due mainly to the

Amsterdam Exchange Bank, set up in 1609 as an official body to facilitate financial

transactions. These were complicated by the many different forms of coinage in circulation.The Exchange Bank accepted cash of all kinds and registered its value in guilders in the

owner's bank account. This laid the basis for the cashless transfer of funds.

But the Golden Age is known not only as a time of economic boom. Culturally too, the

Republic towered over the rest of Europe. An unusual feature for the time was the marked

influence of the bourgeoisie on the various arts. This was especially true of painting, a field

in which the best remembered practitioners of the period include Franz Hals, Johannes

Vermeer (subject of the film), Jan Steen, Pieter de Hough, Jacob van Ruysdael, Gerard

Dou and - greatest of all - Rembrandt van Rijn. Rembrandt (1606-1669) was born in Leiden,

the son of a local miller, and spent a year at the academy there before being apprenticed to a

local artist, Jacob van Swedenborg, and later to the Amsterdam painter Pieter Pieters. Last

man. In 1625 he returned to Leiden and set up as an independent artist. Seven years later,

however, he moved back to Amsterdam and took lodgings with the art dealer Hendrik van

Uylenburgh, whose cousin, Saskia van Uylenburgh, he married a year later. Of their four

children only one, Titus, survived.

After Saskia's death in 1642, Rembrandt's financial circumstances became increasingly

difficult, culminating in bankruptcy of many of his paintings and other possessions. By that

time he was living with Hendrickje Stoffels, who bore him a daughter, Cornelia. Hendrickje

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and Titus acted as Rembrandt's agents, finding sufficient commissions for him to settle his

debts. Most of these commissions came from the wealthy citizens and merchants of

Amsterdam. Rembrandt died in 1669 and was buried in the Westerkerk in Amsterdam.

Rembrandt painted many portraits, including the world-famous group portrait known to

posterity as The Night Watch. Biblical scenes and self-portraits are a major feature of his

oeuvre. His best-known works include the Anatomy Lesson of Dr Nicolaes Tulp, Portrait ofSaskia as Flora, The Sampling Officials of the Drapers' Guild (De Staalmeesters), The

Bridal Couple ("The Jewish Bride") and The Holy Family. Nowadays, Rembrandt's works

are dispersed throughout Europe and the United States. Major collections can be found in

the print room of the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, the Boymans-Van Beuningen Museum in

Rotterdam, the Teylers Museum in Haarlem, the print room of the British Museum in

London, the Albertina in Vienna and the Pierpont Morgan Library in New York.

During the Golden Age, Amsterdam attracted immigrants from all over Europe and beyond.

All kinds of people migrated to this metropolis, where religious dissent was tolerated and

work was freely available. Flemish, Portuguese, English, French, German and Polish visitors

flocked to admire the city. Their number even included the Russian Tsar, Peter the Great,

who studied the latest shipbuilding techniques in Zaandam, just north of Amsterdam, with aview to modernizing the Russian fleet. The father of Baruch Spinoza, a Jew fleeing religious

persecution in Portugal, was another newcomer to Amsterdam. His son (1632-1677) became

famous throughout Europe and corresponded with a host of major contemporary figures. His

contacts with liberal Christians and free-thinkers eventually led to his expulsion from the

Jewish community and his departure from Amsterdam. His most celebrated work is the

Ethics, in which he used mathematics to unite the Jewish mystical tradition and rational

scientific thought in a single all-encompassing vision. His work, together with that of

Voltaire and Descartes, had a great influence on the Enlightenment.

In the mid-17th century, England and France intensified their attacks on the economic

hegemony of the Republic. England promulgated the Navigation Act in 1651 and on land

the Republic waged exhausting wars against Louis XIV of France. The economic burdensimposed by these events eventually brought about the end of the Golden Age. By the early

eighteenth century, it was all over.

Question:

During the Golden Age, how did the arts, especially painting, reflect 17c Dutch life? What weresome of the major themes that were stressed by Dutch artists of the period? How was this

evident in the film?