Course Description
A survey of Baroque art and architecture in Flanders, the Netherlands, and Germany from ca. 1600 through 1700. Major artists to be considered include Rubens, van Dyck, Rembrandt, Hals, and Vermeer.
Athena Title
16/17C Northern Art
Prerequisite
ARHI 2000 or ARHI 2000E or ARHI 2000H or ARHI 2300 or ARHI 2300E or ARHI 2311H or ARHI 2400 or ARHI 2400E or ARHI 2411H
Grading System
A - F (Traditional)
Course Objectives
A survey of art and architecture in Flanders, the Netherlands, and Germany. A companion course to ARHI 3030, this class will consider the different path taken by Baroque artists in northern Europe. In most cases, major shifts in patronage and, consequently, style derived from the changing religious and social environment. No longer limited to royal and Catholic patronage, artists and their patrons were increasing bourgeois and Protestant. Monumental commissions for churches and palaces were replaced with a public art market as volatile as the infamous tulip trade in Amsterdam. Special attention will be paid to the growing significance of engravings and etchings as well as the role of Renaissance Netherlandish and German art in the development of northern Baroque art.
Topical Outline
The course will begin with a brief survey of history of 16th century painting and printmaking in the Netherlands and Germany. This introduction will be followed by a careful consideration of the international careers of Rubens and van Dyck. Their careers will be contrasted to the local developments that shaped the artistic lives of Hals, Rembrandt, and Vermeer among other Dutch artists. Special attention will be paid to the new genres-- especially those suited to a middle class environment-including the portrait, landscapes, genre painting, and still life painting. Students will be exposed to the specific histories of individual artists working in northern Europe and to the wider development of new trends and genres across Protestant Europe.
Syllabus