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Dutch Golden Age and Painting
As described in “Travels in Holland” and “Travels along the Highway to Karatsu, Hirado, Sasebo and Nagasaki” the Netherlands in the 17th century became one of the strongest commercial and industrial nations in the world, thanks to world trade and the development of agriculture and industry, including urban gardening (tulips), glass art, woolen goods, shipbuilding, brewing and printing. It had established a golden age.
As Ryotaro Shiba said, “The world was truly created by God, but only the Netherlands was created by the Dutch.” The Netherlands was also a Protestant country that was the first to establish autonomism, rationalism, and modern civic spirit.
Therefore, there were no royalty or aristocracy, and the patrons of paintings were wealthy citizens who preferred to have painters paint subjects that were more familiar to them – scenes from their daily lives, familiar landscapes, and objects (still lifes) – rather than historical paintings based on myths and biblical episodes (narrative painting) that depicted stories of distant and geographically distant places, which had been favored by the royalty and aristocracy. Rather than historical episodes (narrative paintings), which depicted stories of distant and geographically distant places, artists preferred to paint subjects that were more familiar to them: scenes from their daily lives, familiar landscapes, and objects (still life). In addition, because Protestantism forbade idolatry, there were no orders for large religious paintings from churches, and Dutch painting established its own genre within Europe.
In this article, I would like to discuss the painters who were involved in the Dutch vicinity.
Flanders’ Dog and Rubens
A Dog of Flanders,” which was animated in 1975 and has been rerun many times since then, is based on a children’s book written in the 19th century by Wieder in England.
The setting for this literature will be the village of Hoboken, near Antwerp, Belgium. The main character, Nero (above left), who dreamed of becoming a painter, lived with his old dog, Patrush (above center), dreaming of seeing Rubens’ masterpieces “The Ascension of Christ” and “The Descent of Christ”. The Rubens masterpieces were open only to those who paid for them at the time, so poor Nero could not see them.
Nero, who has lost his precious future and despairs of his life, heads for the great cathedral with his last strength, while a blizzard of extreme cold continues to take his life. Patrush rushes from the windmill to the cathedral in pursuit of Nero. At this moment, a ray of moonlight shines through the clouds and illuminates the altarpiece, fulfilling Nero’s wish, and Nero prays to God in thanksgiving. The morning after Christmas, a young boy is found frozen to death in front of a painting by Rubens, whom he had longed for, with his beloved dog in his arms.
The story has a sad ending.
In Belgium, this story was not so famous, partly because it was written by a British author and partly because it was British literature. A documentary film was also made to examine “why a story unknown in Belgium became so famous in Japan.
Rubens, whom Nero admired here, became a painter who was active from the end of the 16th century to the mid-17th century, spoke seven languages, and was an accomplished diplomat.
Rubens was a Flemish painter who represented the Baroque period and was greatly appreciated, especially by the European aristocracy. Baroque in this context is expressed as follows according to wiki.
A style of art and culture that emerged in Rome, Mantova, Venice, and Florence in Italy in the late 16th and early 17th centuries and spread rapidly throughout most of Europe, Baroque art began after the Renaissance art movement as a bold attempt to transcend the contradictions between order and movement.
Ryotaro Shiba had the following to say about this baroque
It is well known that the 17th century was the era of "Baroque" art (architecture and music as well) in Europe. Baroque art is indeed a very lush art. Even in the depictions of people and events in "The Bible," one can feel the white fat of the saint's wounds, and in the scene of the crucifixion upside down, the saint's muscles and the muscles of the executioners are moving as if they are surging toward a single purpose. Even when the holy woman is in a state of quiet religious euphoria, her eyes are turned heavenward, and she is made to feel a sweltering sexuality. How excessive! The light and dark are exaggerated in order to reveal the body. At times, the viewer feels as if a figure is about to leap out of the screen. The secret purpose of the painters of the Baroque period was to "frighten" us. It was sometimes overt, and often the only artistic impulse. However, it is not a scare tactic. It is the result of a well-developed technique. The odd close-up, the overly theatrical composition, the exaggeration of perspective to make it effective, and the intense luminosity and infernal darkness. All of them may be excessive, but the robust compositional method used does not make us feel any incongruity. This is what makes it baroque. ....
It also states the following
There is no established theory as to the origin of the word "baroque. The most popular theory is that it comes from Portuguese. The Portuguese word "barroco" refers to pearls that are not spherical in shape, but rather bulge out and hang down like a gourd or drops of eye drops. At that time, the Portuguese, along with the Spanish, were rich people who brought large amounts of gold and silver to Antwerp. It is not surprising that when they saw the new trend of painting in the cathedral, they would associate the nude, buttery female figure with an irregular pearl, for example. A Spanish dictionary tells us that the word "barroco" also means "decorative. Baroque has a large historical meaning. Baroque has great historical significance. The people who saw them must have been reminded during the storm of the Reformation that the Church of Rome was right, that its teachings were realistic, and that it was even more human. Of course, they must have thought it was beauty itself.
Unlike its neighbor, the Netherlands, Belgium, where Rubens was active, is a predominantly Catholic country, but Rubens himself had a complicated background, having a Calvinist (Protestant) father and being raised in Antwerpen with a Catholic education. He left many works influenced by the Counter-Reformation, a reform movement that took place within Catholicism in opposition to the Protestant Reformation.
Rubens also spent the early part of the 17th century in Italy to study art, and it can be said that he learned about the Baroque trend created in the Catholic world and allowed it to flourish in Belgium.
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