Dutch Painting in the Age of Rembrandt and Vermeer
Text by Ronni Baer, Henk van Nierop, Herman Roodenburg, Eric Jan Sluijter, Marieke de Winkel, Sanny de Zoete.
The Dutch Republic in the 17th 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 works that circulated through an open market to patrons and customers at every level of Dutch society. The closely observed details of daily life captured in portraits, genre scenes and landscapes offer a wealth of information about the possessions, activities and circumstances that distinguished members of the social classes, from the nobility to the urban poor. The dazzling array of paintings gathered here--by artists such as Frans Hals, Jan Steen, Pieter de Hooch and Gerard ter Borch, as well as Rembrandt and Vermeer--illuminated by essays from leading scholars, invites us to explore a vibrant early modern society and its reflection in a golden age of brilliant painting.
Pieter de Hooch, "Courtyard of a House in Delft", 1658, is reproduced from Class Distinctions.
PRAISE AND REVIEWS
Historians of Netherlandish Art
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.
Boston Globe
Sebastian Smee
Priceless insights into the workings and self-image of an entire society…. a deeply informative catalog.
The Wall Street Journal
Blissfully accessible essays.
Financial Times
Ariella Budick
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.
STATUS: Out of stock
Temporarily out of stock pending additional inventory.
"The protagonist in a Dutch farce of 1686 laments the chaos wrought by those who dress above their station," Marieke de Winkel writes in Class Distinctions: Dutch Painting in the Age of Rembrandt and Vermeer, the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston's
gorgeous hardcover catalogue for the current exhibition of 17th century Dutch masterpieces depicting aspects of class and station. "The 'good wife' in the play of that name says it's important to know whom to address as 'Milady, Madam or Mistress, and who should be called Meg or Kate.' Meg and Kate, the lowest in rank, were the maidservants, known only by their Christian names. The wife goes on: 'The disorder with regard to dress is a disgrace; one's station cannot be distinguished. Just look at well-born people of means: what do they wear that is not immediately imitated by burghers' wives and daughters? And what do they, in turn, wear that is not copied by maidservants." Featured image is Pieter de Hooch's "Courtyard of a House in Delft," 1658. See more 2015 Holiday Gift Books. >> continue to blog
FORMAT: Hbk, 9 x 11 in. / 344 pgs / 185 color. LIST PRICE: U.S. $65.00 LIST PRICE: CANADA $87 ISBN: 9780878468300 PUBLISHER: MFA Publications, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston AVAILABLE: 10/27/2015 DISTRIBUTION: D.A.P. RETAILER DISC: TRADE PUBLISHING STATUS: Active AVAILABILITY: Out of stock TERRITORY: WORLD
Class Distinctions Dutch Painting in the Age of Rembrandt and Vermeer
Published by MFA Publications, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Text by Ronni Baer, Henk van Nierop, Herman Roodenburg, Eric Jan Sluijter, Marieke de Winkel, Sanny de Zoete.
The Dutch Republic in the 17th 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 works that circulated through an open market to patrons and customers at every level of Dutch society. The closely observed details of daily life captured in portraits, genre scenes and landscapes offer a wealth of information about the possessions, activities and circumstances that distinguished members of the social classes, from the nobility to the urban poor. The dazzling array of paintings gathered here--by artists such as Frans Hals, Jan Steen, Pieter de Hooch and Gerard ter Borch, as well as Rembrandt and Vermeer--illuminated by essays from leading scholars, invites us to explore a vibrant early modern society and its reflection in a golden age of brilliant painting.
