FLEMISH and DUTCH OLD MASTERS - 16th and 17th century

In the Southern Netherlands painters developed a broad scale of new artistic genres and themes mirroring the social and religious patterns of those days. After the decline and subsequent fall of Antwerp to the Spanish in 1585, however, many of the enterprising merchants and skilled craftsmen fled from Flanders to the newly formed United Dutch Provinces. They were to have a powerful impact on the social and economic life in the North.

Eager to discover new worlds and exercising their political freedom, the Dutch developed a lively trade overseas, which led to extraordinary wealth. For over four generations, there was no holding back from what we now so aptly call 'the Golden Age' in Dutch history.

Holland was a country effectively made up of cities. They did not nurture a culture of aristocracy and the influence of the Church leveled out considerably after the decline of the Reformation. It was the cities' middle class that mainly supported the social and economic daily life. This implied a broadly based wealth; there was hardly any elitism. The Protestant religion preached in favour of soberness and against waste. This simple yet strict Calvinistic feeling explains, to a great extent, the cautiousness and sobriety of the Dutch character.

Painters cultivated the taste of the 'burgher', who did not want dramatic large canvasses at home, but rather 'a joy to their eyes'. They wanted to have value for money. There was a lively art market with a healthy competition. The reason for the large quantities of paintings on offer at f.i. the so-called 'free-markets or annual fairs', was the amazing fact that inhabitants were faced with a shortage of land to invest in.