Class Distinctions: Dutch Painting in the Age of Rembrandt and Vermeer - Hardcover

Ronni Baer; Henk Van Nierop

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0878468307 ISBN 13: 9780878468300

Publisher: MFA Publications - The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 2015

Synopsis

The Dutch Republic in the seventeenth century was home to one of the greatest flowerings of painting in the history of Western art. Freed from the constraints of royal and church patronage, artists created a rich outpouring of naturalistic portraits, genre scenes and landscapes that circulated through a newly open market to patrons and customers at every level of Dutch society. Their closely observed details of everyday life offer a wealth of information about the possessions, activities and circumstances that distinguished members of social classes, from the nobility to the urban poor. The dazzling array of paintings gathered here – from artists such as Frans Hals, Jan Steen and Gerrit Dou, as well as Rembrandt and Vermeer – illuminated by essays by leading specialists, invite us to explore a vibrant early modern society and its reflection in a golden age of brilliant painting.

About this title

Review:

Rembrandt's Amsterdam feels modern because it was deeply materialistic. Wealth measured moral fibre, so inner rectitude could be read in the quality of clothes. This is what makes Class Distinctions appear to be as much about the 21st century as the 17th.--Ariella Budick "Financial Times "

Priceless insights into the workings and self-image of an entire society.... a deeply informative catalog.--Sebastian Smee "Boston Globe "

Blissfully accessible essays.--The Wall Street Journal

The catalogue essays are a veritable treasure trove of information about the period and will be consulted forever by any serious scholar of seventeenth-century Dutch social history.--Historians of Netherlandish Art

About this edition

• Publisher: MFA Publications - The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
• Publication date: 2015
• ISBN 10: 0878468307
• ISBN 13: 9780878468300
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 344