Reflections on Dutch 17th Century Painting

After completing this course students are able to:

Praised for its quality of execution and a kind of life-likeness, Dutch 17th-century painting is perceived as one of the pinnacles of western art. Given its idiosyncrasies and aesthetic appeal, it should come as no surprise that major museums all over the world often house a department exclusively devoted to the Dutch 'Golden Age'. And although it may be hard for us nowadays to gauge all the social and cultural references 17th-century audiences recognized in those images, they still speak to the contemporary spectator in a language not that difficult to understand, while revealing objects and environments of times long gone.
The miracle of the enormous production of paintings of exceptionally high quality in a period of about 70 years (1600-1670), in a region that had never before produced much art of a more than provincial significance, and would not do so until two centuries later on, has perplexed generations of scholars and connoisseurs. While trying to determine how the Dutch could have attained such artistic excellence, both scholars and amateurs have also tried to put the finger on what was typically Dutch about the art in question. Concepts and judgments that have developed throughout the ages still largely influence our opinion on the subject. Therefore, perception and reception of Dutch 17th-century painting are the main questions that we will be dealing with in this course.
 
Format
In order to help us understand the issues of perception and reception, the course revolves around three central themes – typically Dutch, non-typically Dutch and, finally, the great heroes of Dutch painting.  
Our first theme addresses the genres that are traditionally perceived as particular for Dutch 17th-century painting – landscape, still-life, genre pieces and portrait painting. In this respect attention will be paid to some important art theoretical issues and the so-called hierarchy of genres.
The second part will, however, focus on styles and contents that have been seen as detrimental for Dutch painting to eventually bring the Golden Age to an end. We will therefore discuss whether this was indeed so, or came as a result of some important concepts that arose during the 19th century.
The third subject will deal with the greatest stars of Dutch seventeenth century painting. This means that Rembrandt, Frans Hals, Vermeer and Jan Steen will be discussed in a monographic way, i.e. their biographies and oeuvres will be discussed separately and chronologically.
 
Throughout the entire course the representative examples of the methods and fields of research that are central to the subject Throughout the entire course the representative examples of the methods and fields of research that are central to the subject of seventeenth-century Dutch art will be presented, particularly focusing on the controversies that have surrounded them. Of course, the methods used are also largely representative of the methods used in art history in general. 
For the midterm exam, students are expected to improve on an assigned Wikipedia page. A group of 4 students will be assigned a Wikipedia entry on a Dutch 17-th century painter, which they will be expected to turn into a credible source. This assignment is also going to be a point of departure for the final paper. .