Art and society in the early modern Netherlands
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- Start Date: 04 Jun 2025End Date: 09 Jul 2025Wed (Evening): 18:00 - 20:00OnlineFull fee £169.00 Senior fee £169.00 Concession £110.00
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What is the course about?
This course offers an introduction to Flemish and Dutch (Netherlandish) art of the late sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. In this period, artists such as Rembrandt, Vermeer, Rubens and Anthony van Dyck created some of the most beautiful and compelling art in Europe at a time when the Netherlands was being rocked by momentous political and religious change.
In addition to studying well-known artists of (what has been called) the ‘Golden Age’, the classes will cover topics such as marriage portraiture, art collecting and the art market, depictions of public and domestic space, and the role of images in early science. In addition to thinking about how human subjectivity was shaped by devotional art, portraiture and narrative painting, we shall look at ways in which concepts such as citizenship, faith, the artist and gender were negotiated through the new specialities of landscape, still life and pictures of everyday life. The focus will be on painting and printmaking, but the course will also consider sculpture and architecture more briefly.
What will we cover?
• We will discuss the role that images and artworks played in the formation of new social, religious and national identities in the Netherlands.
• We will study how the most successful artists of the time managed to innovate and compete successfully in a vibrant, challenging art market.
• We will look at the emergence of new genres such as landscape, still life and pictures of everyday life.
What will I achieve?
By the end of this course you should be able to...
By the end of this course you should be able to:
• Discuss how art was connected with social and political change in the early modern Netherlands, giving 2 examples.
• List 3 important artists working in this tradition.
• Visually analyse 2 key examples of Netherlandish art.
What level is the course and do I need any particular skills?
This course is suitable for all levels.
How will I be taught, and will there be any work outside the class?
You will be taught with lecture, slide presentations and will be invited to participate in class discussion. There will be a Google Classroom for the sharing of documents related to the course. You will be sent an invitation to the Google Classroom within a week of the course start date.
Are there any other costs? Is there anything I need to bring?
You might wish to have something to write with. You might wish to buy some of the books on any reading list given out in class.
When I've finished, what course can I do next?
Representing nature in the early modern world
Art & Empire in the Dutch Golden Age.
Thomas Balfe is an art historian specialising in early modern (c.1550–c.1750) northern European easel painting and the graphic arts. His current research interests are in seventeenth-century animal, hunting, fable, and food still-life imagery, and in European visual responses to the Arctic and the Americas. His co-edited book about the written claims to lifelikeness in early modern art writing was published in 2019.
Please note: We reserve the right to change our tutors from those advertised. This happens rarely, but if it does, we are unable to refund fees due to this. Our tutors may have different teaching styles; however we guarantee a consistent quality of teaching in all our courses.
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