AHIS102 17th Century Northern

- Rembrandt Self Portrait - There is no setting or location - Rembrandt showing himself in the guise as 'artist'

How does the artist direct the viewer's attention to the figure? What does the inclusion of his artistic tools signify?

- The Dutch "Golden Age" - His technique is very brushy, painterly

Rembrandt worked during what period and what was his style?

Using the landscape to bracket the edges of the painting -contains the viewers eye back to the center

Repoussoir

- The Netherlands revolted against Spanish control resulting in the 80 Years War - Peace was reached with a treaty that divided the area into the Northern Dutch Republic and the Southern "Spanish Netherlands" or Flanders - Protestant Dutch Republic, Catholic Flanders

1. What events led to the Eighty Years War (1568-1648)? What ended the war, and how did it change the political and religious alignment of the region?

Jan Vermeer's: View of Delft - The horizon line is painted very low and the focus is on the cloud formations - Date and location is identifiable through the architecture

10. Who made this and what is it called? How does this exemplify Dutch landscape painting? How can the viewer identify the time and location of the work

Vermeer: Allegory of the Art of Painting - Detailed in the black and white checkered floor and leads the eye into the scene - In action it appears to be a painter's studio, but in decoration it appears to be a residence

12. How does the artist create a convincing rendering of three-dimensional space? Why is the setting of this painting ambiguous (hint, look at the action and the interior decoration)?

Vermeer: The Geographer - Tools or mapmaking and foreign objects are present, the light highlights certain objects in the room - The pulled back curtain and the objects in front of us

13. How does this illustrate the importance of trade in the Dutch Republic (hint, see the objects and the use of light)? How does the artist make the viewer feel like we are intruding?

- High Renaissance: naturalism and depiction of musculature, classical influences - Baroque influence: drama, movement, intense color and sensuality - Caravaggio: diagonal layout and motion - Titian: colors

2. How does Peter Paul Ruben's Elevation of the Cross illustrate both High Renaissance and Baroque influences? How does the work demonstrate the influence of Caravaggio and Titian?

- Painterly - seeing the brushstrokes that were used to apply the paint to the canvas - Strong triangular format, connecting the figures - Colors also connect the figures - Rubens combines the sensual and the religious with Mary's depiction - The exposed breast symbolizes Mary as Christ's sustenance

3. Looking at Rubens' Holy Family, how would you describe his painting style (hint, look at the surface of the work)? Describe the composition of the Holy Family—what formal element connects the figures? Why did Rubens create a sensual Madonna, and what does an exposed breast symbolize?

- Influenced by classical ideals of rationality, balance, clarity and order • Spent most of his life in Rome - Rubens is more interested in color while Poussin is more interested in line - Color symbolizes emotion and line symbolizes logic

4. Why is Poussin labeled a "Seventeenth-Century French Classicist"? What is the debate between line and color—what do each symbolize?

Studio assistants would have helped - Rubenesque - fleshy and voluptuous female depiction - Gender division made by showing the woman as pale and fleshy while the male is tanned and muscular (separating the domestic and public spheres) - Rubens' Venus is more heavy and fleshy, there is no ominous foreshadowing

5. How was a large painting, like Rubens' Venus and Adonis, probably created? What is a Rubenesque woman, and how does Venus exemplify this type? How did Rubens create a gender division in this work, and what does this division indicate? How does this differ from Titian's?

- Ruben's works emphasize the figures as the focal point while Poussin emphasizes the landscape and the story is almost lost in the foreground Uses repoussoir

6. How does Poussin's Landscape with Ashes of Phocion differ from Rubens' non-religious work (hint, what is emphasized in each)?

Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Nicolas Tulp - On the left, the male figure's gaze leads us back to the center, in the back the pages of the book lead us back again

8. What is this called? How does Rembrandt employ the framing technique to direct the viewer's attention?

- Rembrandt: Night Watch (militia company of captain frans banning cocq) - In the meeting hall for the Militia Company in Amsterdam - It is unsure who the young girl is but the dead chicken signifies a defeated enemy - The scene was actually a daytime scene, in an alleyway

9. Where was this originally hung? Who is the young girl in the background, and what might the dead chicken signify? How did the cleaning of the painting alter its subsequent interpretation?

- Vermeer includes a complexity of objects to contemplate, meticulous details

Although Vermeer's paintings initially appear to be outright and simplistic, how does he capture the viewer's attention to create a deeper meaning?

Vermeer: Woman holding a balance - The single shaft of light on a single figure draws the viewer in - The painting depicts the Last Judgment • Parallel between weighing the pearls - References balance, as if something was unbalanced and the nail had to be replaced - She wears the blue cloak that is symbolic of Mary, she is depicted as pregnant

how does the artist pull the viewers attention into the work? What painting is represented on the wall, how does it parallel the woman's action? How does the nail hole a symbolic reference? How does Vermeer reference the Virgin Mary?