Dutch Baroque

Dutch art flourished from 1610 to 1670. Its style was realistic, its subject matter commonplace. But what made its creators more than just skilled technicians was their ability to capture the play of light on different surfaces and to suggest texture by the way light was absorbed or reflected. Before the Baroque era, landscape views were little more than background for whatever was going on in the front of the picture. The Dutch established landscape as deserving of its own artistic treatment.

A s a genre of painting, the still life began in the Netherlands. Artists tried to achievean extraordinary realism in portraying domestic objects. Often still lifes were emblematic, as in «vanitas» paintings, with symbols like a skull or smoking candle representing the transience of all life.

H als. Frans Hals's contribution to art was his ability to capture a fleeting expression. Whether his portraits depicted musicians, gypsies, or solid citizens, he brought them to life, often laughing. His trademark was portraits of men and women caught in a moment of rollicking high spirits. Hals's most famous painting, «The Laughing Cavalier», portrays a sly figure with a smile on his lips, a twinkle in his eyes, and a mustache rakishly upturned. Hals achieved this swashbuckling effect chiefly through his brushstrokes. Before Hals, Dutch realists prided themselves on masking their strokes to disguise the process of painting, thereby heightening a painting's realism. In this «alia prima», technique, the artist applies paint directly to the canvas without an undercoat. The painting is completed with a single application of brushstrokes. Hals transformed the stiff convention of group portraiture.

Rembrandt. Probably the best-known painter in the Western world is Rembrandt van Rijn. For the first twenty years of his career, Rembrandt's portraits were the height of fashion. During this prosperous period, he also painted Biblical and historical scenes in a Baroque style. These intricately detailed works were lit dramatically, with the figures reacting melodramatically. The year 1642 marked a turning point in Rembrandt's career. His dearly loved wife died. In his mature phase, Rembrandt's art became less physical, more psychological. He turned to Biblical subjects but treated them with more restraint. A palette of reds and browns came to dominate his paintings, as did solitary figures and a pervasive theme of loneliness. He pushed out the limits of chiaroscuro, using gradations of light and dark to convey mood, character, and emotion.

EARLY STYLE 1622–1642	LATE STYLE 1643–1669
Used dramatic light/dark contrasts Design seemed to burst frame Scenes featured groups of figures Based on physical action Vigorous, melodramatic tone Highly finished, detailed technique	Used golden-brown tones, subtle shading Static, brooding atmosphere Scenes simplified with single subject Implied psychological reaction Quiet, solemn mood Painted with brood, thick strokes

He almost carved with pigment, laying on heavy impasto «half a finger» thick with a palette knife for light areas and scratching the thick, wet paint with the handle of the brush. This created an uneven surface that reflected and scattered the light, making it sparkle, while the dark areas were thinly glazed to enhance the absorption of light.

V ermeer. The painter Johannes Vermeer is now considered second only to Rembrandt among Dutch artists. While other artists used a gray/green/brown palette, Vermeer's colors were brighter, purer, and glowed with an intensity unknown before. Besides his handling of color and light, he balanced compositions of rectangular shapes lend serenity and stability to his paintings. A typical canvas portrays a neat, spare room lit from a window on the left and a figure engrossed in a simple domestic task. But what elevates his subjects above the banal is his keen representation of visual reality, colors perfectly true to the eye, and the soft light that fills the room with radiance. He used a «camera obscura» to aid his accuracy in drawing. This was a dark box with a pinhole opening that could project an image of an object or scene to be traced on a sheet of paper. His handling of paint was also revolutionary.