The Netherlands is a unique country that has given the world dozens of outstanding artists. Famous designers, artists and simply talented performers - here small list, which this small state can flaunt.

The rise of Dutch art

The era of prosperity of the art of realism did not last long in Holland. This period covers the entire 17th century, but the scale of its significance greatly exceeds this chronological framework. Dutch artists of that time became role models for the subsequent generation of painters. So that these words do not sound unfounded, it is worth mentioning the names of Rembrandt and Hals, Potter and Ruisdael, who forever strengthened their status as unsurpassed masters of realistic depiction.

A very significant representative of the Dutch Jan Vermeer. He is considered to be the most mysterious character in the heyday of Dutch painting, since, although famous during his lifetime, he lost interest in his person less than half a century later. Little is known about Vermeer’s biographical information; mostly art historians have explored the history of him by studying his works, but there were difficulties here too - the artist practically did not date his paintings. The most valuable from an aesthetic point of view are considered to be Jan's works "Maid with a Jug of Milk" and "Girl with a Letter".

No less famous and respectable artists were Hans Memling, Hieronymus Bosch, and the brilliant Jan van Eyck. All creators are distinguished by their appeal to everyday life, which is reflected in still lifes, landscapes and portraits.

Left its mark on the subsequent development of French art of the second half XVI I century and became a model for realistic landscapes created during the Renaissance. Russian realist artists also paid attention to the Dutch. We can safely say that the art of the Netherlands has become progressive and exemplary and has managed to be reflected in the canvas of everyone outstanding artist, who wrote natural studies.

Rembrandt and his legacy

The artist's full name is Rembrandt van Rijn. He was born in the memorable year 1606 into a family that was quite prosperous at that time. Being the fourth child, he still received a good education. The father wanted his son to graduate from university and become outstanding figure, however, his expectations were not met due to the boy’s low academic performance, and so that all his efforts would not be in vain, he was forced to give in to the guy and agree with his desire to become an artist.

Rembrandt's teachers were the Dutch artists Jacob van Swanenburch and Pieter Lastman. The first had rather mediocre skills in painting, but managed to gain respect for his personality, since he spent a long time in Italy, communicating and working with local artists. Rembrandt did not stay with Jacob for long and went in search of another teacher to Amsterdam. There he studied with Peter Lastman, who became a real mentor for him. It was he who taught the young man the art of engraving to the extent that his contemporaries can observe it.

As evidenced by the master’s works, executed in huge quantities, Rembrandt became a fully formed artist by 1628. His sketches were based on any objects, and human faces were no exception. When discussing portraits of Dutch artists, one cannot fail to mention the name of Rembrandt, who from his young years became famous for his remarkable talent in this field. He painted a lot of his father and mother, which are now kept in galleries.

Rembrandt quickly gained popularity in Amsterdam, but did not stop improving. In the 30s of the 17th century, its famous masterpieces“Anatomy Lesson”, “Portrait of Coppenol”.

An interesting fact is that at that time Rembrandt married the beautiful Saxia, and a fertile time of abundance and glory began in his life. Young Saxia became the artist’s muse and was embodied in more than one painting, however, as art historians testify, her features are repeatedly found in other portraits of the master.

The artist died in poverty, without losing the fame he had acquired during his lifetime. His masterpieces are concentrated in all major galleries in the world. He can rightfully be called a master whose works represent a synthesis of all medieval realistic painting. Technically, his work cannot be called ideal, since he did not strive for the accuracy of the construction of the drawing. The most important artistic aspect that distinguished him from representatives of the schools of painting was his unsurpassed play of chiaroscuro.

Vincent Van Gogh - a genius nugget

Hearing the phrase “great Dutch artists,” many people immediately picture in their heads the image of Vincent Van Gogh, his undeniably beautiful and lush paintings, which were appreciated only after the artist’s death.

This person can be called a unique and brilliant personality. Being the son of a pastor, Van Gogh, like his brother, followed in their father's footsteps. Vincent studied theology and even was a preacher in the Belgian town of Borinage. He also works as a commission agent and various moves. However, service in the parish and close contact with the harsh everyday life of miners revived the inner feeling of injustice in the young genius. Contemplating the fields and the life of working people every day, Vincent was so inspired that he began to draw.

Dutch artists are primarily known for their portraits and landscapes. Vincent Van Gogh was no exception. By his thirtieth birthday, he gives up everything and begins to actively engage in painting. This period marks the creation of his famous works “The Potato Eaters” and “The Peasant Woman”. All his works are imbued with frenzied sympathy for ordinary people who feed the whole country, but at the same time can barely feed their own families.

Later, Vincent heads to Paris, and the focus of his work changes somewhat. Intense images and new themes for empathy appear. The half-prison lifestyle and marriage to a prostitute were reflected in his art, which is clearly visible in the paintings “Night Cafe” and “Prisoners’ Walk.”

Friendship with Gauguin

Beginning in 1886, van Gogh became interested in studying plein-air painting by the Impressionists and developed an interest in Japanese prints. It was from that moment that the characteristic features of Gauguin and Toulouse-Lautrec were visible in the artist’s works. First of all, this can be seen in the change in the transmission of color mood. Rich strokes begin to dominate the works yellow, as well as a blue “sparkle”. The first sketches in a characteristic color scheme were: “Bridge over the Seine” and “Portrait of Father Tanguy”. The latter dazzles with its brightness and bold strokes.

The friendship between Gauguin and Van Gogh was of a correlational nature: they mutually influenced creativity, although they used different expressive tools, actively exchanged gifts in the form of their own paintings and argued tirelessly. The difference between the characters, the insecure position of Vincent, who believed that his pictorial manners were “rural bestial,” gave rise to controversy. In some ways, Gauguin was a more down-to-earth personality than V an Gogh. The passions in their relationship became so intense that one day they quarreled in their favorite cafe and Vincent threw a glass of absinthe at Gauguin. The quarrel did not end there, and the next day there followed a long series of accusations towards Gauguin, who, according to Van Gogh, was guilty of everything. It was at the end of this story that the Dutchman was so furious and depressed that he cut off part of his ear, which he kindly gave it as a gift to a prostitute.

Dutch artists, regardless of the era of their lives, have repeatedly proven to society their unsurpassed manner of transferring moments of life onto canvas. However, perhaps no one in the world has ever been able to earn the title of genius without having the slightest understanding of drawing techniques, composition and methods of artistic expression. Vincent Van Gogh is a unique genius who managed to achieve worldwide recognition thanks to his perseverance, purity of spirit and exorbitant thirst for life.

Having won victory in the fight against Spain for its independence, bourgeois Holland became the most economically developed state in Western Europe. The main Dutch city of Amsterdam was identified as one of the largest shopping centers Europe.

Along with the economy, Dutch painting is also developing. Unlike other Western European countries, baroque paintings of palaces and castles were not popular in Holland - the weakness of the nobility served as an obstacle to the development of decorative art. The Calvinist Church of Holland also did not seek to decorate its churches with works of painting.

Nevertheless, painting flourished in Holland: artists received numerous orders from private individuals. Even Dutch peasants could hang a small painting in their homes - these artists’ creations were so cheap.

In the 17th century Over two thousand artists worked in little Holland. They put the production of paintings on stream, produced canvases in whole batches and handed them over to sellers. Almost every master performed from two to five compositions per week.

Often the production of paintings outpaced demand, so in order to feed themselves, artists had to simultaneously engage in other work. Such famous masters as J. Steen, M. Gobbema, J. van Goyen and many others were at the same time employees, gardeners, and tavern keepers.

Typically, painters specialized in one specific topic. For example, H. Averkamp wrote winter views, E. van der Poel depicted night fires, G. Terborch and G. Metsu - everyday scenes, P. Claes and V. K. Heda - still lifes-breakfasts.

Very often, artists worked collectively on one picture: one painted the sky, another - grass and trees, the third - human figures. The most successful works that were successful with the public were copied and served as a model for the creation of countless versions.

Although the art of talented painters was subordinated to commercial goals, the masters usually managed to avoid falsehood. Most of these paintings are distinguished by their realism, integrity and clarity of composition, freshness of color and excellent execution technique.

The portrait genre became widespread in Dutch painting. Various organizations played a major role in the life of the country (the shooting society, groups of representatives of the medical corporation and trade shops), which contributed to the emergence of a group public portrait.

The long-term struggle with the Spanish colonialists sharpened the sense of national identity, therefore, in painting, in addition to realism, the depiction of characteristic national traits. Artists painted the sea and ships, livestock, flowers. In addition to portraiture, genres such as landscape and still life developed. There was also religious painting, but it lacked the element of mysticism; biblical stories introduced themselves
by the artist rather as everyday scenes.

Frans Hals

Frans Hals was born around 1581 in Antwerp into a weaver's family. As a young man, he came to Haarlem, where he lived almost constantly until his death (in 1616 he visited Antwerp, and in the mid-1630s - Amsterdam). Little is known about Hulse's life. In 1610 he entered the Guild of St. Luke, and in 1616 he entered the chamber of rhetoricians (amateur actors).

Very quickly Hals became one of the most famous portrait painters Haarlem. In the XV-XVI centuries. in the painting of the Netherlands there was a tradition of painting portraits only of representatives of the ruling circles, famous people and artists. Hals's art is deeply democratic: in his portraits we can see an aristocrat, a wealthy citizen, an artisan, and even a person from the very bottom. The artist does not try to idealize those depicted; the main thing for him is their naturalness and uniqueness. His nobles behave as relaxed as representatives of the lower strata of society, who in Khals’s paintings are depicted as cheerful people who are not devoid of self-esteem.

Group portraits occupy a large place in the artist’s work. The best works of this genre were portraits of officers of the St. George rifle company (1627) and the St. Adrian rifle company (1633). Each character in the paintings has its own distinct personality, and at the same time, these works are distinguished by their integrity.

Hals also painted commissioned portraits depicting wealthy burghers and their families in relaxed poses (“Portrait of Isaac Massa,” 1626; “Portrait of Hethuisen,” 1637). Hals’s images are lively and dynamic; it seems that the people in the portraits are talking to an invisible interlocutor or addressing the viewer.

Representatives of the popular environment in Khals’s portraits are distinguished by their vivid expressiveness and spontaneity. In the images of street boys, fishermen, musicians, and tavern visitors, one can feel the author’s sympathy and respect. His “Gypsy” is remarkable. The smiling young woman seems surprisingly alive, her sly gaze directed at her interlocutor, invisible to the audience. Hals does not idealize his model, but the image of a cheerful, disheveled gypsy delights with its perky charm.

Very often, Hulse's portraits include elements genre scene. These are the images of children singing or playing musical instruments (“Singing Boys”, 1624-1625). The famous “Malle Babbe” (early 1630s) was performed in the same spirit, representing a well-known tavern owner in Haarlem, whom visitors called the Haarlem Witch behind her back. The artist almost grotesquely depicted a woman with a huge beer mug and an owl on her shoulder.

In the 1640s. The country is showing signs of a turning point. Only a few decades have passed since the victory of the revolution, and the bourgeoisie has already ceased to be a progressive class based on democratic traditions. The truthfulness of Hals painting no longer attracts wealthy clients who want to see themselves in portraits better than they really are. But Hulse did not abandon realism, and his popularity plummeted. In the painting of this period, notes of sadness and disappointment appear (“Portrait of a Man in a Wide-brimmed Hat”). His palette becomes stricter and calmer.

At the age of 84, Hulse created two of his masterpieces: group portraits of regents (trustees) and regents of a nursing home (1664). These latest works by the Dutch master are distinguished by their emotionality and strong individuality of images. The images of the regents - old men and women - emanate sadness and death. This feeling is also emphasized by the color scheme in black, gray and white.

Hals died in 1666 in deep poverty. His truthful, life-affirming art had a great influence on many Dutch artists.

Rembrandt

In the 1640-1660s. Dutch painting was flourishing. The most significant artist of this time was Rembrandt.

Rembrandt Harmens van Rijn was born in 1606 in Leiden. His father was a wealthy miller. Parents dreamed of good education for his son and sent him to a Latin school, after which Rembrandt entered the University of Leiden. But the young man was attracted to art. He left the university and began studying with the painter Jacob Swannenburch. Three years later, the young artist went to Amsterdam, where he began taking lessons from Pieter Lastman.

In 1624 Rembrandt returned to Leiden. Here he rented a studio together with the painter Jan Lievens. The artist works a lot from life, painting not only in the studio, but also on the street and at the city bazaar.

At the end of the 1620s. Rembrandt gained popularity among the residents of Leiden. He received many orders and his first student was Gerard Dou, who later became a fairly famous painter.

Rembrandt's early paintings are characterized by careful composition and conscientious execution. At the same time, they are characterized by some stiffness (“The Torment of St. Sebastian”, 1625).

In 1631, Rembrandt settled in Amsterdam. His fame quickly spread throughout the city, and orders poured in for the painter. Rembrandt's personal life was also successful: in 1634 he married Saskia van Uylenburg, a girl from a famous bourgeois family. The marriage brought the artist a significant fortune, which provided him with creative independence and allowed him to start collecting works of art and antiques.

Rembrandt enjoyed happiness in the company of his beloved wife, whom he depicted many times in portraits. Saskia often served as a model for paintings with a wide variety of themes (“Flora,” 1634; “Self-portrait with Saskia on her knees,” c. 1639).

Rembrandt's work during this period is diverse; he painted historical, mythological and religious compositions, portraits, everyday scenes, landscapes, still lifes, paintings with images of animals. But the main object of his attention is man. Not only in portraits, but also in his other works, the artist strives to convey the character and inner world of his heroes.

A remarkable master of the portrait genre, only in the 1630s. Rembrandt executed more than sixty commissioned portraits. The main thing for a painter is not the external resemblance to the model, but the depth inner world, the power of mental movements and experiences. The group portrait “The Anatomy of Doctor Tulp” (1632) was greeted with delight by his contemporaries. The artist made changes to the traditional composition of the classic group portrait, arranging the figures not in a row, as was customary, but freely. This construction gave the image life and naturalness.

At the end of the 1630s. Rembrandt became the most famous master in Holland. His masterpiece, the famous “Danae” (1636), dates back to this period, the craftsmanship of which surpasses everything that was created by his contemporaries
artist. The perfection of its composition and the richness of the color scheme, designed in golden shades, are striking. It seems that there is nothing superfluous in this work; every detail is carefully thought out by the author. With the help of a free and lively brushstroke, the master conveys the lightness of the bedspread, the folds of heavy curtains and draperies. The flexible plasticity of the young woman lying on the bed and the soft golden shades of the body, illuminated by soft light, are striking. Although Danaë does not shine with ideal beauty, her image delights the viewer with its lively charm and freshness.

In the 1630s. The artist also works a lot in etching. He is attracted by everyday motives (“Seller of Rat Poison”, 1632). Elements of genre are also inherent in works with biblical themes (“The Return of the Prodigal Son”, 1636). One of the best etchings of this period is “The Death of Mary” (1639), emotional and imbued with a feeling of deep sorrow. The remarkable work “Christ Healing the Sick” (the so-called “Leaf of One Hundred Guilders” - this name indicates the cost of the work) is also distinguished by the complexity of the composition and the monumental grandeur of the images.

In the 1640s. Rembrandt becomes the most famous and highest paid painter in Amsterdam. He was commissioned for portraits and compositions for the palace of the Dutch Stadtholder in The Hague. Many aspiring artists seek to study in his workshop. The fame of Rembrandt's art extends beyond the borders of Holland. Several paintings famous master kept in the palace English king Charles I.

Rembrandt's talent was evident in his realistic and expressive still lifes ("Bull's Carcass") and landscapes ("Landscape with a Mill", c. 1650). Subtle lyricism is inherent in the unassuming Dutch landscapes, striking the viewer with their almost tangible reality.

The death of his beloved wife in 1642 alienated Rembrandt from her noble relatives. The artist stopped communicating with his acquaintances from aristocratic society. The changes in the master’s life were reflected in his painting, which became deeper and more focused. If early works Rembrandt is distinguished by a calm and even mood, but now notes of anxiety and doubt begin to sound in his paintings. The palette, which is dominated by red and golden shades, also changes.

The canvas “David and Jonathan” (1642, Hermitage, St. Petersburg), executed in golden-pink and golden-blue tones, is distinguished by its vivid expressiveness.

All these new features in Rembrandt’s painting did not meet with understanding among his contemporaries. The large monumental composition caused dissatisfaction " Night watch"(1642). The painting received this name in the 19th century. In fact, the action takes place not at night, but during the day, in sunlight, which confirms the nature of the shadows.

Over time, the colors darkened, and only restoration carried out in 1946-1947 showed that the color scheme of this work was once much lighter.

The painting depicts the riflemen of Captain Banning Coke's company. The customer expected to see a traditional ceremonial portrait(a scene of a feast or a commander presenting his subordinates to the viewer). Rembrandt created a geo-
roico-historical painting depicting the performance of riflemen on the orders of the captain. The characters are excited and dynamic; the commander gives orders, the standard bearer raises the banner, the drummer beats the drum, the riflemen load their weapons. There is also a little girl spinning around out of nowhere with a rooster at her belt.

During these years, Hendrikje Stoffels appeared in Rembrandt's life, first a maid, and then his wife, who became his faithful friend and assistant. The artist still works a lot. He creates his famous “Holy Family” (1645), in which the religious theme is interpreted as a genre theme. Along with biblical compositions, the painter painted realistic landscapes with images of the village (“Winter View”, 1646). His portraits of this period are distinguished by his desire to show the individual characteristics of his models.

In the 1650s. the number of orders is significantly reduced. Rembrandt is experiencing great financial difficulties. He faces complete ruin, because the debt associated with the purchase of a house during the life of his first wife, Saskia, has still not been paid. In 1656, the artist was declared insolvent, and his art collection and all his property were sold at auction. Rembrandt's family had to move to the poor Jewish quarter of Amsterdam.

Despite all the adversities, the talent of the great painter does not dry out. But now the criterion of his skill is completely different. IN later works Rembrandt's colorful strokes appear sharply on the surface of the canvas. Now the colors in his paintings serve not only to convey appearance characters and images of the interior - it is the coloring that takes on the semantic load of the work. Thus, the feeling of intense drama in the painting “Assur, Haman and Esther” (1660) is created through a complex tonal range and special lighting effects.

Deprived of orders, living in deep poverty, Rembrandt does not stop writing. He creates expressive and spiritual portraits, for which relatives and friends serve as models (“Portrait of the artist’s brother’s wife”, 1654; “Portrait of an old man in red”, 1652-1654; “Portrait of the son Titus reading”, 1657; “Portrait of Hendrikje Stoffels at windows", ca. 1659).

The son Titus, who has finally received the fortune of his deceased mother, is trying to protect his father from material deprivation and create conditions for him to work peacefully. But misfortunes continued to haunt the artist: Hendrickje died in 1663, and Titus followed her a few years later.

It was during this tragic time that the old, lonely artist created his masterpieces, distinguished by their monumental grandeur and spirituality (“David and Uriah,” 1665-1666; “The Return of the Prodigal Son,” c. 1668-1669).

Rembrandt died in 1669, forgotten by everyone. Only in the 18th century. his art was finally understood and appreciated.

In the 1640-1660s. The leading genre in Dutch painting was the everyday genre. The paintings depicting the most ordinary moments of reality are surprisingly poetic and lyrical. The main object of attention of painters is man and the world around him. Most genre compositions are distinguished by a calm narrative and lack of drama. They talk about the household chores of the mistress of the house (buying provisions, taking care of children, doing handicrafts), about the entertainment of the Dutch burgher (playing cards, receiving guests, concerts). Artists depict everything that happens in the house of a wealthy city dweller, ignoring the social side of a person’s life.

Genre painters were very popular: G. Dou, whose paintings were sold at very high prices, A. van Ostade, who painted scenes of peasant life (“Country Concert”), J. Steen, whose favorite themes were scenes of fun and holidays (“Merry Society” ), G. Terborch, whose elegant painting represented the life of a rich burgher family (“A Glass of Lemonade”), G. Metsu with his ingenuous storytelling (“Sick Child”), P. de Hooch, who created contemplative and lyrical canvases (“Mistress and Maid ").

K. Fabritius, who lived short life(died in Delft in the explosion of a gunpowder warehouse). One of his best works is “The Raising of Lazarus” (c. 1643), notable for its drama and almost monumental scope. His portraits and self-portraits are also remarkable, putting the artist on a par with F. Hals and Rembrandt.

The fate of E. de Fabricius, a talented master of everyday scenes and works depicting church interiors (“Market in the port”, “Interior with a woman at the harpsichord”) is tragic. The artist did not seek to pander to the tastes of the bourgeois public, so his works, which were not successful with his contemporaries, were sold for pennies. Often Fabricius was forced to pay them off for debts to homeowners. On a winter night in 1692, a seventy-five-year-old artist, thrown out of his house by his owner, hanged himself on the railing of a bridge. A similar fate was typical for many Dutch painters who did not want to give up realistic traditions to please the public.

Jan Wermeer of Delft

A prominent representative of Dutch genre painting is Jan Vermeer, nicknamed Delft after his place of birth and activity. The painter was born in 1623 into the family of a painting and silk merchant. Little is known about Wermeer's life. Perhaps his teacher was C. Fabricius. In 1653, the artist became a member of the Guild of St. Luke and married the daughter of a wealthy townsman, Catherine Bolnes. In Delft he enjoyed respect and fame, lived in big house, located on the market square.

Vermeer worked on his paintings very slowly and thoroughly, carefully recording every detail. Painting could not provide a comfortable existence for the artist’s family, although his canvases enjoyed great success. This is probably why Vermeer began selling paintings, continuing his father’s work.

Already in Vermeer’s first works, a combination of realism and a certain amount of idealization of images, characteristic of his work, appears (“Diana with the Nymphs”, “Christ with Martha and Mary” - both before 1656). The next work, a large-figure canvas “At the Pimp” (1656), painted on a subject used by many painters, is distinguished by its originality of execution. An ordinary everyday scene for the artist acquires almost monumental significance. The painting stands out among other works with a similar theme for its bold coloring, sustained in pure yellow, red, black and white colors, and the bright expressiveness of the images.

Subsequently, Vermeer turned to chamber compositions traditional for Dutch painting. Like other Dutch masters, he depicts events taking place in rich burgher houses. The artist’s favorite image is of a girl reading a letter or trying on a necklace. His canvases depict simple everyday scenes: a maid gives a letter to her mistress, a gentleman brings a glass of wine to the lady. But these paintings, simple in composition, amaze with their integrity, harmony and lyricism; their images attract with their naturalness and calm poetry.

In the second half of the 1650s. the artist created his most wonderful works. The deeply lyrical “Sleeping Girl”, “Glass of Wine”, “Girl with a Letter” are marked with a warm feeling. Many Dutch painters of this time depicted in their paintings busy with work maids, but only Wermeer’s image of a woman from the people has features of true beauty and greatness (“Servant with a Jug of Milk”).

Vermeer is a true virtuoso in conveying the essence of the world of things with the help of visual means. The still lifes in his paintings are executed with great skill. A dish with apples and plums, standing on a table covered with a patterned tablecloth in the canvas “Girl with a Letter,” looks amazingly beautiful and natural.

In the painting “The Maid with a Jug of Milk,” the bread and milk flowing in a thick stream from the jug amaze with their freshness.

Light plays a big role in Vermeer's works. It fills the space of the canvases, creating the impression of extraordinary airiness; models shapes and penetrates paints, making them glow from within. It is thanks to this amount of light and air that a special emotional elation is created in most of Vermeer’s works.

The painter’s remarkable skill was also evident in landscape painting. A small corner of the city, shrouded in a humid atmosphere cloudy day, reproduces the clear and simple composition of “Street” (c. 1658). The rain-washed city appears clean and fresh in the painting “View of Delft” (between 1658 and 1660). The sun's rays break through the soft silvery clouds, creating many bright reflections on the surface of the water. The sonorous coloring with its subtle color transitions gives the picture expressiveness and harmony.

In the 1660s. Vermeer's painting becomes more refined and elegant. The palette is also changing, now dominated by cool colorful shades (“Girl with a Pearl”). The main characters of the paintings are rich ladies and gentlemen surrounded by luxurious objects (“Love Letter”, ca. 1670).

Jan Wermeer of Delft. Maid with a jug of milk. Between 1657 and 1660
Jan Wermeer of Delft. Painter's workshop. OK. 1665

IN last period During the life of Vermeer, his works become superficial and somewhat far-fetched (“Allegory of Faith”), and the palette loses its richness and sonority. But even in these years, individual works of the artist amaze with the same expressive power. Such is his “Painter's Workshop” (1665), in which Vermeer depicted himself at work, and the paintings “Astronomer” and “Geographer”, depicting scientists.

The fate of Vermeer, like many other Dutch masters, is tragic. At the end of his life, the sick artist, who had lost most of his previous customers, was forced to move his large family from his previous home to a cheaper home. Over the past five years he has not painted a single painting. The painter died in 1675. His art was forgotten for a long time, and only in the middle of the 19th century. Vermeer was appreciated and placed on a par with such Dutch masters, like Rembrandt and F. Hals.

Note. In addition to artists from the Netherlands, the list also includes painters from Flanders.

15th century Dutch art
The first manifestations of Renaissance art in the Netherlands date back to the early 15th century. The first paintings that can already be classified as early Renaissance monuments were created by the brothers Hubert and Jan van Eyck. Both of them - Hubert (died 1426) and Jan (circa 1390-1441) - played a decisive role in the formation of the Dutch Renaissance. Almost nothing is known about Hubert. Ian was apparently very educated person, studied geometry, chemistry, cartography, carried out some diplomatic assignments of the Duke of Burgundy, Philip the Good, in whose service, by the way, his trip to Portugal took place. The first steps of the Renaissance in the Netherlands can be judged by the brothers’ paintings, executed in the 20s of the 15th century, and among them such as “Myrrh-Bearing Women at the Tomb” (possibly part of a polyptych; Rotterdam, Museum Boijmans van Beiningen), “ Madonna in the Church" (Berlin), "Saint Jerome" (Detroit, Art Institute).

The Van Eyck brothers occupy an exceptional place in contemporary art. But they weren't alone. At the same time, other painters who were stylistically and problematically related to them also worked with them. Among them, the first place undoubtedly belongs to the so-called Flemal master. Many ingenious attempts have been made to determine his true name and origin. Of these, the most convincing version is that this artist receives the name Robert Campin and a fairly developed biography. Previously called the Master of the Altar (or "Annunciation") of Merode. There is also an unconvincing point of view that attributes the works attributed to him to the young Rogier van der Weyden. It is known about Campin that he was born in 1378 or 1379 in Valenciennes, received the title of master in 1406 in Tournai, lived there, performed, in addition to painting, many decorative works, was a teacher of a number of painters (including Rogier van der Weyden, who will be discussed below - from 1426, and Jacques Darais - from 1427) and died in 1444. Kampen’s art retained everyday features in the general “pantheistic” scheme and thus turned out to be very close to the next generation of Dutch painters. The early works of Rogier van der Weyden and Jacques Darais, an author who was extremely dependent on Campin (for example, his “Adoration of the Magi” and “The Meeting of Mary and Elizabeth,” 1434–1435; Berlin), clearly reveal an interest in the art of this master, in which there is no doubt the trend of time appears.

Portrait of a Young Woman, 1445, Art Gallery, Berlin

St Ivo, 1450, National Gallery, London

Saint Luke painting the image of the Madonna, 1450, Museum Groningen, Bruges

Rogier van der Weyden was born in 1399 or 1400, trained under Campin (that is, in Tournai), received the title of master in 1432, and in 1435 moved to Brussels, where he was the official painter of the city: in 1449–1450 he traveled to Italy and died in 1464. Some of the largest artists of the Dutch Renaissance studied with him (for example, Memling), and he enjoyed wide fame not only in his homeland, but also in Italy (the famous scientist and philosopher Nicholas of Cusa called him the greatest artist; later his work was noted by Dürer). The work of Rogier van der Weyden served as a nourishing basis for a wide variety of painters of the next generation. Suffice it to say that his workshop - the first such widely organized workshop in the Netherlands - had a strong influence on the unprecedented spread of the style of one master in the 15th century, ultimately reduced this style to the sum of stencil techniques and even played the role of a brake on painting at the end of the century. And yet the art of the mid-15th century cannot be reduced to the Rohir tradition, although it is closely connected with it. The other path is epitomized primarily by the works of Dirik Bouts and Albert Ouwater. They, like Rogier, are somewhat alien to pantheistic admiration for life, and their image of man is increasingly losing touch with questions of the universe - philosophical, theological and artistic questions, acquiring more and more concreteness and psychological certainty. But Rogier van der Weyden, a master of heightened dramatic sound, an artist who strove for individual and at the same time sublime images, was mainly interested in the sphere of human spiritual properties. The achievements of Bouts and Ouwater lie in the area of ​​enhancing everyday authenticity of the image. Among formal problems, they were more interested in issues related to solving not so much expressive, but visual tasks(not the sharpness of the drawing and the expression of color, but the spatial organization of the picture and the naturalness, naturalness of the light-air environment).

But before moving on to consider the work of these two painters, we should dwell on a phenomenon on a smaller scale, which shows that the discoveries of mid-century art, being both a continuation of the van Eyck-Kampen tradition and a departure from them, were in both of these qualities deeply justified. The more conservative painter Petrus Christus clearly demonstrates the historical inevitability of this apostasy, even for artists not inclined to radical discoveries. From 1444, Christus became a citizen of Bruges (he died there in 1472/1473) - that is, he saw the best works of van Eyck and was influenced by his tradition. Without resorting to the sharp aphorism of Rogier van der Weyden, Christus achieved a more individualized and differentiated characterization than van Eyck did. However, his portraits (E. Grimston - 1446, London, National Gallery; Carthusian monk - 1446, New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art) at the same time indicate a certain decline in imagery in his work. In art, the craving for the concrete, individual, and particular was becoming more and more apparent. Perhaps these tendencies were most clearly manifested in the work of Bouts. Younger than Rogier van der Weyden (born between 1400 and 1410), he was far from the dramatic and analytical nature of this master. Yet early Bouts comes largely from Rogier. The altar with “The Descent from the Cross” (Granada, Cathedral) and a number of other paintings, for example “Entombment” (London, National Gallery), indicate a deep study of the work of this artist. But the originality is already noticeable here - Bouts provides his characters with more space, he is interested not so much in the emotional environment as in the action, the very process of it, his characters are more active. The same goes for portraits. In the excellent portrait of a man (1462; London, National Gallery), prayerfully raised - although without any exaltation - eyes, a special mouth and neatly folded hands have such an individual coloring that van Eyck did not know. Even in the details you can feel this personal touch. A somewhat prosaic, but innocently real reflection lies in all the works of the master. It is most noticeable in his multi-figure compositions. And especially in his most famous work - the altar of the Louvain Church of St. Peter (between 1464 and 1467). If the viewer always perceives van Eyck’s work as a miracle of creativity, then different feelings arise in front of Bouts’ works. Bouts' compositional work speaks volumes about him as a director. Bearing in mind the successes of such a “director’s” method (that is, a method in which the artist’s task is to arrange characteristic features, as if extracted from nature, characters, organize the scene) in subsequent centuries, one should pay attention to this phenomenon in the work of Dirk Bouts.

The next stage of Dutch art covers the last three or four decades of the 15th century - an extremely difficult time for the life of the country and its culture. This period opens with the work of Joos van Wassenhove (or Joos van Gent; between 1435–1440 - after 1476), an artist who played a significant role in the formation of new painting, but left for Italy in 1472, acclimatized there and organically became involved in Italian art. His altar with the “Crucifixion” (Ghent, Church of St. Bavo) indicates a desire for narrative, but at the same time a desire to deprive the story of cold dispassion. He wants to achieve the latter with the help of grace and decorativeness. His altar is a secular work in nature with a light color scheme based on refined iridescent tones.
This period continues with the work of a master of exceptional talent - Hugo van der Goes. He was born around 1435, became a master in Ghent in 1467 and died in 1482. Hus's earliest works include several images of the Madonna and Child, distinguished by the lyrical aspect of the image (Philadelphia, Museum of Art, and Brussels, Museum), and the painting “St. Anne, Mary and Child and Donor” (Brussels, Museum). Developing the findings of Rogier van der Weyden, Hus sees in composition not so much a way of harmoniously organizing what is depicted, but a means for concentrating and identifying the emotional content of the scene. A person is remarkable to Hus only by the strength of his personal feelings. At the same time, Gus is attracted by tragic feelings. However, the image of Saint Genevieve (on the back of the Lamentation) indicates that, in search of naked emotion, Hugo van der Goes began to pay attention to its ethical significance. In the altar of Portinari, Hus tries to express his faith in the spiritual capabilities of man. But his art becomes nervous and tense. Hus's artistic techniques are varied - especially when he needs to recreate a person's spiritual world. Sometimes, as in conveying the reaction of the shepherds, he compares close feelings in a certain sequence. Sometimes, as in the image of Mary, the artist outlines the general features of the experience, according to which the viewer completes the feeling as a whole. Sometimes - in the images of a narrow-eyed angel or Margarita - he resorts to compositional or rhythmic techniques to decipher the image. Sometimes the very elusiveness of psychological expression turns into a means of characterization for him - this is how the reflection of a smile plays on the dry, colorless face of Maria Baroncelli. And pauses play a huge role - in spatial decision and in action. They provide an opportunity to mentally develop and complete the feeling that the artist outlined in the image. The character of Hugo van der Goes's images always depends on the role they are supposed to play as a whole. The third shepherd is really natural, Joseph is fully psychological, the angel to his right is almost unreal, and the images of Margaret and Magdalene are complex, synthetic and built on extremely subtle psychological gradations.

Hugo van der Goes always wanted to express and embody in his images the spiritual gentleness of a person, his inner warmth. But in essence, the artist’s latest portraits indicate a growing crisis in Hus’s work, for his spiritual structure was generated not so much by an awareness individual qualities personality, as much as the tragic loss of the unity of man and the world for the artist. IN last job– “The Death of Mary” (Bruges, Museum) – this crisis results in the collapse of all the artist’s creative aspirations. The despair of the apostles is hopeless. Their gestures are meaningless. Floating in radiance, Christ, with his suffering, seems to justify their suffering, and his pierced palms are turned towards the viewer, and a figure of indefinite size violates the large-scale structure and sense of reality. It is also impossible to understand the extent of the reality of the apostles’ experience, for they all have the same feeling. And it’s not so much theirs as it is the artist’s. But its bearers are still physically real and psychologically convincing. Similar images will be revived later, when at the end of the 15th century in Dutch culture a hundred-year-old tradition (in Bosch) came to its end. A strange zigzag forms the basis of the composition of the picture and organizes it: the seated apostle, the only one motionless, looking at the viewer, tilted from left to right, the prostrate Mary from right to left, Christ floating from left to right. And the same zigzag in the color scheme: the figure of the seated person is associated with Mary in color, the one lying on a dull blue cloth, in a robe also blue, but of the utmost, extreme blue, then - the ethereal, immaterial blue of Christ. And all around are the colors of the apostles’ robes: yellow, green, blue - infinitely cold, clear, unnatural. Feeling in “The Assumption” is naked. It leaves no room for hope or humanity. At the end of his life, Hugo van der Goes entered a monastery; his very last years were overshadowed by mental illness. Apparently, in these biographical facts one can see a reflection of the tragic contradictions that defined the master’s art. Hus's work was known and appreciated, and it attracted attention even outside the Netherlands. Jean Clouet the Elder (Master of Moulins) was greatly influenced by his art, Domenico Ghirlandaio knew and studied the Portinari altarpiece. However, his contemporaries did not understand him. Dutch art steadily leaned towards a different path, and isolated traces of the influence of Hus’s work only highlight the strength and prevalence of these other trends. They appeared most fully and consistently in the works of Hans Memling.

Earthly vanity, triptych, central panel,

Hell, left panel of the triptych "Earthly Vanities",
1485, Museum of Fine Arts, Strastbourg

Hans Memling, apparently born in Seligenstadt, near Frankfurt am Main, in 1433 (died in 1494), the artist received excellent training from Rogier and, having moved to Bruges, gained wide fame there. Already relatively early works reveal the direction of his quest. The principles of light and sublime received from him a much more secular and earthly meaning, and everything earthly - a certain ideal elation. An example is the altar with the Madonna, saints and donors (London, National Gallery). Memling strives to preserve the everyday appearance of his real heroes and bring his ideal heroes closer to them. The sublime principle ceases to be an expression of certain pantheistically understood general world forces and turns into a natural spiritual property of man. The principles of Memling’s work emerge more clearly in the so-called Floreins-Altar (1479; Bruges, Memling Museum), the main stage and the right wing of which are essentially free copies of the corresponding parts of Rogier’s Munich altar. He decisively reduces the size of the altar, cuts off the top and side parts of Rogier's composition, reduces the number of figures and, as it were, brings the action closer to the viewer. The event loses its majestic scope. The images of the participants lose their representativeness and acquire private features, the composition is a shade of soft harmony, and the color, while maintaining purity and transparency, completely loses Rogirov’s cold, sharp sonority. It seems to tremble with light, clear shades. Even more characteristic is the “Annunciation” (circa 1482; New York, Lehman collection), where Rogier’s scheme is used; The image of Mary is given the features of soft idealization, the angel is significantly genre-dressed, and the interior items are painted with Van Eyck-like love. At the same time, motifs of the Italian Renaissance - garlands, putti, etc. - are increasingly penetrating into Memling’s work, and compositional structure becomes more and more measured and clear (triptych with “Madonna and Child, Angel and Donor”, ​​Vienna). The artist tries to erase the line between the concrete, burgherly mundane principle and the idealizing, harmonious one.

Memling's art attracted the close attention of the masters of the northern provinces. But they were also interested in other features - those that were associated with the influence of Huss. The northern provinces, including Holland, lagged behind the southern ones in that period both economically and spiritually. Early Dutch painting usually did not go beyond the late medieval and at the same time provincial template, and the level of its craft never rose to artistry Flemish artists. Only in the last quarter of the 15th century did the situation change thanks to the art of Hertgen tot sint Jans. He lived in Haarlem, with the Johannite monks (to which he owes his nickname - sint Jans means Saint John) and died young - twenty-eight years old (born in Leiden (?) around 1460/65, died in Haarlem in 1490-1495 ). Hertgen vaguely sensed the anxiety that worried Hus. But, without rising to his tragic insights, he discovered the soft charm of simple human feeling. He is close to Hus in his interest in the inner, spiritual world of man. Among Goertgen's major works is an altarpiece painted for the Harlem Johannites. The right wing, now sawn on both sides, has survived from it. Its inner side represents a large multi-figure scene of mourning. Gertgen achieves both tasks set by the time: conveying warmth, humaneness of feeling and creating a vitally convincing narrative. The latter is especially noticeable on the outside of the door, where the burning of the remains of John the Baptist by Julian the Apostate is depicted. The participants in the action are endowed with exaggerated character, and the action is divided into a number of independent scenes, each of which is presented with vivid observation. Along the way, the master creates, perhaps, one of the first European art new era of group portraits: built on the principle of a simple combination of portrait characteristics, it anticipates the work of the 16th century. His “Family of Christ” (Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum), presented in a church interior, interpreted as a real spatial environment, provides a lot for understanding Geertgen’s work. The foreground figures remain significant, not showing any feelings, maintaining their everyday appearance with calm dignity. The artist creates images that are perhaps the most burgher in nature in the art of the Netherlands. At the same time, it is significant that Gertgen understands tenderness, sweetness and some naivety not as outwardly characteristic signs, but as certain properties of a person’s spiritual world. And this merging of the burgher sense of life with deep emotionality - important feature creativity of Gertgen. It is no coincidence that he did not give the spiritual movements of his heroes a sublime, universal character. It’s as if he deliberately prevents his heroes from becoming exceptional. Because of this, they do not seem individual. They have tenderness and have no other feelings or extraneous thoughts; the very clarity and purity of their experiences makes them far from everyday life. However, the resulting ideality of the image never seems abstract or artificial. These features also distinguish one of the artist’s best works, “Christmas” (London, National Gallery), a small painting that conceals feelings of excitement and surprise.
Gertgen died early, but the principles of his art did not remain in obscurity. However, the Master of the Braunschweig diptych (“Saint Bavo”, Braunschweig, Museum; “Christmas”, Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum) and some other anonymous masters who are closest to him, who are closest to him, did not so much develop Hertgen’s principles as give them the character of a widespread standard. Perhaps the most significant among them is the Master of Virgo inter virgines (named after a painting in the Amsterdam Rijksmuseum depicting Mary among the holy virgins), who gravitated not so much to the psychological justification of emotion, but to the sharpness of its expression in small, rather everyday and sometimes almost deliberately ugly figures ( "Entombment", St. Louis, Museum; "Lamentation", Liverpool; "Annunciation", Rotterdam). But also. his work is more evidence of the exhaustion of a centuries-old tradition than an expression of its development.

Sharp decline artistic level noticeable in the art of the southern provinces, whose masters were increasingly inclined to be carried away by minor everyday details. More interesting than the others is the very narrative Master of the Legend of St. Ursula, who worked in Bruges in the 80–90s of the 15th century (“The Legend of St. Ursula”; Bruges, Monastery of the Black Sisters), unknown author not devoid of mastery portraits of the Baroncelli spouses (Florence, Uffizi), as well as the very traditional Bruges Master of the legend of St. Lucia (“Altar of St. Lucia”, 1480, Bruges, Church of St. James, as well as polyptych, Tallinn, Museum). The formation of empty, petty art at the end of the 15th century is the inevitable antithesis of the quest of Huss and Hertgen. Man has lost the main support of his worldview - faith in the harmonious and favorable order of the universe. But if the common consequence of this was only the impoverishment of the previous concept, then a closer look revealed threatening and mysterious features in the world. To answer the insoluble questions of the time, late medieval allegories, demonology, and gloomy predictions of the Holy Scriptures were used. In conditions of growing acute social contradictions and severe conflicts, Bosch's art arose.

Hieronymus van Aken, nicknamed Bosch, was born in 's-Hertogenbosch (died there in 1516), that is, away from the main artistic centers of the Netherlands. His early works are not without a hint of some primitiveness. But already they strangely combine a sharp and disturbing sense of the life of nature with cold grotesqueness in the depiction of people. Bosch responds to the trend of modern art - with its craving for the real, with its concretization of the image of a person, and then the reduction of its role and significance. He takes this tendency to a certain extent. In Bosch's art satirical or, better said, sarcastic images of the human race appear. This is his “Operation to remove the stones of stupidity” (Madrid, Prado). The operation is performed by a monk - and here an evil smile appears at the clergy. But the one to whom it is done looks intently at the viewer, and this gaze makes us involved in the action. Sarcasm grows in Bosch’s work; he imagines people as passengers on the ship of fools (the painting and drawing for it are in the Louvre). He turns to folk humor - and under his hands it takes on a dark and bitter shade.
Bosch comes to affirm the gloomy, irrational and base nature of life. He not only expresses his worldview, his sense of life, but gives it a moral and ethical assessment. "Haystack" is one of Bosch's most significant works. In this altar, a naked sense of reality is fused with allegory. The haystack alludes to the old Flemish proverb: “The world is a haystack: and everyone takes from it what they can grab”; people kiss in plain sight and play music between an angel and some devilish creature; fantastic creatures pull the cart, and the dad, the emperor, joyfully and obediently follow it ordinary people: some run ahead, rush between the wheels and die, crushed. The landscape in the distance is not fantastic or fabulous. And above everything - on a cloud - is a small Christ with his hands raised. However, it would be wrong to think that Bosch gravitates towards the method of allegorical likenings. On the contrary, he strives to ensure that his idea is embodied in the very essence of artistic decisions, so that it appears before the viewer not as an encrypted proverb or parable, but as a generalizing unconditional way of life. With a sophistication of imagination unfamiliar to the Middle Ages, Bosch populates his paintings with creatures that bizarrely combine various animal forms, or animal forms with objects of the inanimate world, placing them in obviously incredible relationships. The sky turns red, birds equipped with sails fly through the air, monstrous creatures crawl across the face of the earth. Fish with horse legs open their mouths, and next to them are rats, carrying on their backs living wooden snags from which people hatch. The horse's croup turns into a giant jug, and a tailed head sneaks somewhere on thin bare legs. Everything crawls and everything is endowed with sharp, scratching forms. And everything is infected with energy: every creature - small, deceitful, tenacious - is engulfed in an angry and hasty movement. Bosch gives these phantasmagoric scenes the greatest persuasiveness. He refuses to depict the action unfolding on foreground, and spreads it to the whole world. He imparts to his multi-figure dramatic extravaganzas an eerie tone in its universality. Sometimes he introduces a dramatization of a proverb into the picture - but there is no humor left in it. And in the center he places a small defenseless figurine of St. Anthony. Such, for example, is the altar with “The Temptation of Saint Anthony” on the central door from the Lisbon Museum. But then Bosch shows an unprecedentedly acute, naked sense of reality (especially in the scenes on the outer doors of the mentioned altar). In Bosch's mature works the world is limitless, but its spatiality is different - less rapid. The air seems clearer and damper. This is how “John on Patmos” is written. On the reverse side of this painting, where scenes of the martyrdom of Christ are depicted in a circle, amazing landscapes are presented: transparent, clean, with wide river spaces, high skies and others - tragic and intense (“Crucifixion”). But the more persistently Bosch thinks about people. He tries to find an adequate expression of their life. He resorts to the form of a large altar and creates a strange, phantasmagoric grandiose spectacle of the sinful life of people - the “Garden of Delights”.

The artist's latest works strangely combine the fantasy and reality of his previous works, but at the same time they are characterized by a feeling of sad reconciliation. Clots of evil creatures, previously triumphantly spreading throughout the entire field of the picture, crumble. Separate, small, they still hide under a tree, appear from quiet river streams, or run along deserted hills overgrown with grass. But they decreased in size and lost activity. They no longer attack humans. And he (still Saint Anthony) sits between them - reads, thinks (“Saint Anthony”, Prado). Bosch was not interested in the thought of one person’s position in the world. Saint Anthony in his previous jobs defenseless, pitiful, but not lonely - in fact, he is deprived of that share of independence that would allow him to feel lonely. Now the landscape relates specifically to one person, and in Bosch’s work the theme of man’s loneliness in the world arises. 15th century art ends with Bosch. Bosch's work completes this stage of pure insights, then intense searches and tragic disappointments.
But the trend personified by his art was not the only one. No less symptomatic is another trend associated with the work of a master of an immeasurably smaller scale - Gerard David. He died late - in 1523 (born around 1460). But, like Bosch, he closed the 15th century. Already his early works (“The Annunciation”; Detroit) are prosaically realistic; works from the very end of the 1480s (two paintings on the plot of the trial of Cambyses; Bruges, Museum) reveal a close connection with Bouts; better than others are compositions of a lyrical nature with a developed, active landscape environment (“Rest on the Flight to Egypt”; Washington, National Gallery). But the impossibility for the master to go beyond the boundaries of the century is most clearly visible in his triptych with the “Baptism of Christ” (early 16th century; Bruges, Museum). The closeness and miniature nature of the painting seems to be in direct conflict with the large scale of the painting. Reality in his vision is devoid of life, emasculated. Behind the intensity of the color there is neither spiritual tension nor a sense of the preciousness of the universe. The enamel style of the painting is cold, self-contained and devoid of emotional purpose.

The 15th century in the Netherlands was a time of great art. By the end of the century it had exhausted itself. New historical conditions, the transition of society to another stage of development caused new stage in the evolution of art. It originated from the beginning of the 16th century. But in the Netherlands, with the original combination of the secular principle with religious criteria in assessing life phenomena, characteristic of their art, which comes from the van Eycks, with the inability to perceive a person in his self-sufficient greatness, outside the questions of spiritual communion with the world or with God - in the Netherlands there is a new era inevitably had to come only after the strongest and most grave crisis of the entire previous worldview. If in Italy the High Renaissance was a logical consequence of the art of the Quattrocento, then in the Netherlands there was no such connection. The transition to a new era turned out to be especially painful, since it largely entailed the denial of previous art. In Italy, a break with medieval traditions occurred as early as the 14th century, and the art of the Italian Renaissance maintained the integrity of its development throughout the Renaissance. In the Netherlands the situation was different. The use of medieval heritage in the 15th century made it difficult to apply established traditions in the 16th century. For Dutch painters, the line between the 15th and 16th centuries turned out to be associated with a radical change in their worldview.
Dutch art of the 16th century

Dutch painting, in fine arts

About half of the 16th table. among Dutch painters there is a desire to get rid of shortcomings Russian art- its Gothic angularity and dryness - the study of Italian artists of the era Renaissance and combining their manners with the best traditions own school. This desire is already visible in the works of the aforementioned Mostert; but the main disseminator of the new movement should be considered Jan Schorel (1495-1562), who lived for a long time in Italy and later founded the school in Utrecht from which he came a whole series artists infected with the desire to become Dutch Raphaels And Michelangelo. In his footsteps, Maarten van Van, nicknamed Gemskerk (1498-1574), Henryk Goltzius (1558-1616), Peter Montford, nicknamed. Blokhorst (1532-83), Cornelis v. Haarlem (1562-1638) and others belonging to the next period of the Italian school, such as, for example, Abraham Bloemaert (1564-1651), Gerard Gonthorst (1592-1662), went beyond the Alps to become imbued with the perfections of the luminaries of Italian painting, but fell , for the most part, under the influence of representatives of the decline of this painting that was beginning at that time, they returned to their homeland as mannerists, imagining that the whole essence of art lies in the exaggeration of muscles, in the pretentiousness of angles and the panache of conventional colors. However, the passion for Italians, which often extended to extremes in the transitional era of Greek painting, brought a kind of benefit, since it brought into this painting a better, more learned drawing and the ability to manage the composition more freely and boldly. Together with the Old Netherlandish tradition and boundless love for nature, Italianism became one of the elements from which the original, highly developed art of the flourishing era was formed. The onset of this era, as we have already said, should be dated to the beginning of the 17th century, when Holland, having won independence, began to live a new life. The dramatic transformation of an oppressed and poor country just yesterday into a politically important, comfortable and wealthy union of states was accompanied by an equally dramatic revolution in its art. From all sides, almost at once, they appear in countless numbers. wonderful artists, called to activity by the rise of the national spirit and the need for their work that has developed in society. To the original art centers, Harlem and Leiden, new ones are being added - Delft, Utrecht, Dortrecht, Hague , Amsterdam etc. Everywhere, the old tasks of painting are being developed in a new way under the influence of changing demands and views, and its new branches, the beginnings of which were barely noticeable in the previous period, are flourishing magnificently. The Reformation drove religious paintings out of churches; there was no need to decorate palaces and noble chambers with images antique gods and heroes, and therefore history painting, satisfying the tastes of the rich bourgeoisie, she abandoned idealism and turned to an accurate reproduction of reality: she began to interpret long-past events as the events of the day taking place in Holland, and in particular took up portraiture, immortalizing in it the features of people of that time, sometimes in single figures, sometimes in extensive, multi-figure compositions depicting rifle societies (schutterstuke), which played such a prominent role in the struggle for the liberation of the country - the managers of its charitable institutions (regentenstuke), guild foremen and members of various corporations. If we decided to talk about all the talented portrait painters of the flourishing era of Gaul. art, then just listing their names with an indication of their best works would take many lines; Therefore, we limit ourselves to mentioning only those artists who are especially outstanding from the general ranks. These are: Michiel Mierevelt (1567-1641), his student Paulus Morelse (1571-1638), Thomas de Keyser (1596-1667) Jan van Ravesteyn (1572? - 1657), predecessors of the three greatest portrait painters of Holland - the sorcerer of chiaroscuro Rembrandt van Rijn ( 1606-69), an incomparable draftsman who had amazing art model the figures in the light, but somewhat cold in character and color of Bartholomew van der Gelst (1611 or 1612-70) and the striking fugue of his brush by Frans Gols the Elder (1581-1666). Of these, the name of Rembrandt shines especially brightly in history, at first held in high esteem by his contemporaries, then forgotten by them, little appreciated by posterity, and only in the current century elevated, in all fairness, to the level of world genius. In his characteristic artistic personality, all the best qualities of G. painting are concentrated, as if in focus, and his influence was reflected in all its types - in portraits, historical paintings, everyday scenes and landscape. The most famous among Rembrandt's students and followers were: Ferdinand Bol (1616-80), Govert Flinck (1615-60), Gerbrand van den Eckhout (1621-74), Nicholas Mas (1632-93), Art de Gelder (1645-1727 ), Jacob Backer (1608 or 1609-51), Jan Victors (1621-74), Carel Fabricius (c. 1620-54), Salomon and Philips Koning (1609-56, 1619-88), Pieter de Grebber, Willem de Porter († later 1645), Gerard Dou (1613-75) and Samuel van Googstraten (1626-78). In addition to these artists, to complete the list of the best portraitists and historical painters of the period under review, one should name Jan Lievens (1607-30), Rembrandt’s friend in the study of P. Lastman, Abraham van Tempel (1622-72) and Pieter Nazon (1612-91), working, apparently, under the influence of V. d. Gelsta, the imitator of Hals Johannes Verspronck (1597-1662), Jan and Jacob de Braev († 1664, † 1697), Cornelis van Zeulen (1594-1664) and Nicholas de Gelta-Stokade (1614-69). Household painting, whose first experiments appeared in the old Dutch school, found itself in the 17th century. especially fertile soil in Protestant, free, bourgeois, self-satisfied Holland. Small pictures, artlessly representing the customs and life of different classes of local society, seemed to enough people more entertaining than large works of serious painting, and, along with landscapes, more convenient for decorating cozy private homes. A whole horde of artists satisfies the demand for such pictures, without thinking long about the choice of themes for them, but conscientiously reproducing everything that is encountered in reality, showing at the same time love for their family, then good-natured humor, accurately characterizing the depicted positions and faces and refined in the mastery of technology. While some are occupied with common people's life, scenes of peasant happiness and sorrow, drinking bouts in taverns and taverns, gatherings in front of roadside inns, rural holidays, games and skating on the ice of frozen rivers and canals, etc., others take the content for their works from a more elegant circle - they paint graceful ladies in their intimate surroundings, being courted by dandy gentlemen, housewives giving orders to maids, salon exercises in music and singing, revelry of golden youth in houses of entertainment, etc. In the long line of artists of the first category, Adrian and Isaac v. take precedence. Ostade (1610-85, 1621-49), Adrian Brouwer (1605 or 1606-38), Jan Stan (about 1626-79), Cornelis Bega (1620-64), Richart Brackenburg (1650-1702), P. v. Lahr, nicknamed Bambocchio in Italy (1590-1658), Cornelis Dusart (1660-1704), Egbert van der Poel (1621-64), Cornelis Drohslot (1586-1666), Egbert v. Gemskerk (1610-80), Henrik Roques, nicknamed Sorg (1621-82), Claes Molenaar (formerly 1630-76), Jan Minse-Molenar (about 1610-68), Cornelis Saftleven (1606-81) and some. etc. Of the equally significant number of painters who reproduced the life of the middle and upper, generally sufficient, class, Gerard Terborch (1617-81), Gerard Dou (1613-75), Gabriel Metsu (1630-67), Peter de Gogh ( 1630-66), Caspar Netscher (1639-84), France c. Miris the Elder (1635-81), Eglon van der Naer (1643-1703), Gottfried Schalcken (1643-1706), Jan van der Meer of Delft (1632-73), Johannes Vercollier (1650-93), Quiring Brekelenkamp (†1668 ). Jacob Ochtervelt († 1670), Dirk Hals (1589-1656), Anthony and Palamedes Palamedes (1601-73, 1607-38), etc. The category of genre painters includes artists who painted scenes of military life, idleness of soldiers in guardhouses, camp sites , cavalry skirmishes and entire battles, dressage horses, as well as falconry and hound hunting scenes akin to battle scenes. The main representative of this branch of painting is the famous and extraordinarily prolific Philips Wouwerman (1619-68). In addition to him, her brother of this master, Peter (1623-82), Jan Asselein (1610-52), whom we will soon meet among the landscape painters, the aforementioned Palamedes, Jacob Leduc (1600 - later 1660), Henrik Verschuring (1627- 90), Dirk Stop (1610-80), Dirk Mas (1656-1717), etc. For many of the named artists, the landscape plays the same important role, like human figures; but in parallel with them, a mass of painters are working, setting it as their main or exclusive task. In general, the Dutch have an inalienable right to be proud that their fatherland is the birthplace not only of the newest genre, but also of landscape in the sense that it is understood today. In fact, in other countries, e.g. in Italy and France, art had little interest in inanimate nature, did not find in it either a unique life or special beauty: the painter introduced landscape into his paintings only as a side element, as a decoration among which episodes of human drama or comedy are played out, and therefore subordinated it to the conditions of the scene, inventing picturesque lines and spots that are beneficial to her, but without copying nature, without being imbued with the impression it inspires. In the same way he “composed” nature in those rare cases when he tried to paint a purely landscape painting. The Dutch were the first to understand that even in inanimate nature everything breathes life, everything is attractive, everything is capable of evoking thought and exciting the movement of the heart. And this was quite natural, because the Dutch, so to speak, created the nature around them with their own hands, treasured and admired it, like a father cherishes and admires his own brainchild. In addition, this nature, despite the modesty of its forms and colors, provided colorists such as the Dutch with abundant material for developing lighting motifs and aerial perspective due to the climatic conditions of the country - its steam-saturated air, softening the outlines of objects, producing a gradation of tones at different plans and covering the distance with a haze of silvery or golden fog, as well as the changeability of the appearance of areas determined by the time of year, hour of day and weather conditions. Among the landscape painters of the flowering period, the Dutch. schools that were interpreters of their domestic nature are especially respected: Jan V. Goyen(1595-1656), who, together with Ezaias van de Velde (c. 1590-1630) and Pieter Moleyne the Elder. (1595-1661), considered the founder of the Goll. landscape; then this master's student, Salomon. Ruisdael († 1623), Simon de Vlieger (1601-59), Jan Wijnants (c. 1600 - later 1679), lover of the effects of better lighting Art. d. Nair (1603-77), poetic Jacob v. Ruisdael (1628 or 1629-82), Meinert Gobbema (1638-1709) and Cornelis Dekker († 1678). Among the Dutch there were also many landscape painters who embarked on travels and reproduced motifs of foreign nature, which, however, did not prevent them from maintaining a national character in their painting. Albert V. Everdingen (1621-75) depicted views of Norway; Jan Both (1610-52), Dirk v. Bergen († later 1690) and Jan Lingelbach (1623-74) - Italy; Ian V. d. Mayor the Younger (1656-1705), Hermann Saftleven (1610-85) and Jan Griffir (1656-1720) - Reina; Jan Hackart (1629-99?) - Germany and Switzerland; Cornelis Pulenenburg (1586-1667) and a group of his followers painted landscapes inspired by Italian nature, with ruins of ancient buildings, bathing nymphs and scenes of an imaginary Arcadia. In a special category we can single out masters who in their paintings combined landscapes with images of animals, giving preference to either the first or the second, or treating both parts with equal attention. The most famous among such painters of rural idyll is Paulus Potter (1625-54); Besides him, Adrian should be included here. d. Velde (1635 or 1636-72), Albert Cuyp (1620-91), Abraham Gondius († 1692) and numerous artists who turned for themes preferably or exclusively to Italy, such as: Willem Romain († later 1693), Adam Peinaker (1622-73), Jan-Baptiste Vanix (1621-60), Jan Asselein, Claes Berchem (1620-83), Karel Dujardin (1622-78), Thomas Weick (1616?-77) Frederic de Moucheron (1633 or 1634 -86), etc. Painting is closely related to landscape architectural species, which Dutch artists began to engage in as an independent branch of art only in the half of the 17th century. Some of those who have since worked in this area have been sophisticated in depicting city streets and squares with their buildings; these are, among others, less significant, Johannes Bärestraten (1622-66), Job and Gerrit Werk-Heide (1630-93, 1638-98), Jan v. d. Heyden (1647-1712) and Jacob v. village Yulft (1627-88). Others, among whom the most prominent are Pieter Sanredan († 1666), Dirk v. Delen (1605-71), Emmanuel de Witte (1616 or 1617-92), painted interior views of churches and palaces. The sea was of such importance in the life of Holland that her art could not treat it except with the greatest attention. Many of its artists who dealt with landscapes, genres and even portraits, breaking away from their usual subjects for a while, became marine painters, and if we decided to list all the Dutch painters. schools depicting a calm or raging sea, ships rocking on it, harbors cluttered with ships, naval battles, etc., then we would get a very long list that would include the names of Ya. Goyen, S. de Vlieger, S. and J. Ruisdael, A. Cuyp and others already mentioned in the previous lines. Limiting ourselves to pointing out those for whom painting marine species constituted a specialty we should call Willem V. de Velde the Elder (1611 or 1612-93), his famous son V. v. de Velde the Younger (1633-1707), Ludolf Backhuisen (1631-1708), Jan V. de Cappelle († 1679) and Julius Parcellis († later 1634). Finally, realistic The direction of the Dutch school was the reason that a type of painting was formed and developed in it, which in other schools until then had not been cultivated as a special, independent branch, namely painting of flowers, fruits, vegetables, living creatures, kitchen utensils, tableware, etc. n. - in a word, what is now commonly called “dead nature” (nature morte, Stilleben). In this area between the The most famous artists of the flourishing era were Jan-Davids de Gem (1606-83), his son Cornelis (1631-95), Abraham Mignon (1640-79), Melchior de Gondecoeter (1636-95), Maria Osterwijk (1630-93) , Willem V. Aalst (1626-83), Willem Geda (1594 - later 1678), Willem Kalf (1621 or 1622-93) and Jan Waenix (1640-1719).

The brilliant period of Dutch painting did not last long - only one century. WITH beginning of the XVIII V. its decline is coming, not because the coasts of the Zuiderzee cease to produce innate talents, but because In society, national self-awareness is weakening more and more, the national spirit is evaporating, and the French tastes and views of the pompous era of Louis XIV are taking root. In art, this cultural turn is expressed by the oblivion on the part of artists of those fundamental principles on which the originality of painters of previous generations depended, and an appeal to aesthetic principles, brought from a neighboring country. Instead of a direct relationship to nature, love of what is native and sincerity, the dominance of preconceived theories, convention, and imitation of Poussin, Lebrun, Cl. Lorrain and other luminaries of the French school. The main propagator of this regrettable trend was the Flemish Gerard de Leresse (1641-1711), who settled in Amsterdam, a very capable and educated artist in his time, who had a huge influence on his contemporaries and immediate posterity both with his mannered pseudo-historical paintings and with the works of his own pen, among which one - "The Great Book of the Painter" ("t groot schilderboec") - served as a code for young artists for fifty years. The decline of the school was also contributed to by the famous Adrian V. de Werff (1659-1722), whose sleek painting with cold, as if cut out ivory figures, with a dull, powerless color, once seemed the height of perfection. Among the followers of this artist, Henrik V. Limborg (1680-1758) and Philip V.-Dyck (1669-1729), nicknamed “Little V.,” were famous as historical painters. -Dyck". Of the other painters of the era in question, endowed with undoubted talent, but infected with the spirit of the time, it should be noted Willem and France v. Miris the Younger (1662-1747, 1689-1763), Nicholas Vercollier (1673-1746), Constantine Netscher (1668-1722), Isaac de Moucheron (1670-1744) and Carel de Maur (1656-1738). Cornelis Trost (1697-1750) gave some shine to the dying school, mainly cartoonist, nicknamed Dutch. Gogarth, portrait painter Jan Quincgard (1688-1772), decorative and historical painter Jacob de Wit (1695-1754) and painters of dead nature Jan V. Geysum (1682-1749) and Rachel Reisch (1664-1750).

Foreign influence weighed on Dutch painting until the twenties of the 19th century, having managed to more or less reflect in it the changes that art took in France, starting with the wigmaking of the times of the Sun King and ending with the pseudo-classicism of David. When the style of the latter became obsolete and everywhere in Western Europe, instead of the fascination with the ancient Greeks and Romans, a romantic desire was aroused, mastering both poetry and the figurative arts, the Dutch, like other peoples, turned their gaze to their antiquity, and therefore to their glorious past painting. The desire to give her again the brilliance with which she shone in the 17th century began to animate newest artists and returned them to the principles of the ancient national masters - to a strict observation of nature and an ingenuous, sincere attitude to the tasks at hand. However, they did not try to completely avoid foreign influence, but when they went to study in Paris or Dusseldorf and other artistic centers in Germany, they took home only an acquaintance with the successes of modern technology. Thanks to all this, the revived Dutch school again received an original, attractive physiognomy and is moving today along the path leading to further progress. Many of their own newest figures she can easily contrast with the best painters of the 19th century in other countries. History painting in the strict sense of the word, it is cultivated in it, as in the old days, very moderately and has no outstanding representatives; But in terms of the historical genre, Holland can be proud of several significant recent masters, such as: Jacob Ekgout (1793-1861), Ari Lamme (b. 1812), Peter V. Schendel (1806-70), David Bles (b. 1821), Hermann ten-Cate (1822-1891) and the highly talented Lawrence Alma-Tadema (b. 1836), who deserted to England. By everyday genre, which was also part of the circle of activity of these artists (with the exception of Alma-Tadema), one can point to a number of excellent painters, headed by Joseph Israels (b. 1824) and Christoffel Bisschop (b. 1828); besides them, Michiel Verseg (1756-1843), Elhanon Vervaer (b. 1826), Teresa Schwarze (b. 1852) and Valli Mus (b. 1857) are worthy of being named. The newest goal is especially rich. painting by landscape painters who worked and work in a variety of ways, sometimes with careful completion, sometimes with the broad technique of the impressionists, but faithful and poetic interpreters of their native nature. These include Andreas Schelfgout (1787-1870), Barent Koekkoek (1803-62), Johannes Wilders (1811-90), Willem Roelofs (b. 1822), Hendrich v. de Sande-Bockhuisen (b. 1826), Anton Mauwe (1838-88), Jacob Maris (b. 1837), Lodewijk Apol (b. 1850) and many others. etc. Direct heirs of Ya. D. Heyden and E. de Witte, painters of promising views appeared, Jan Verheiden (1778-1846), Bartholomews v. Gove (1790-1888), Salomon Vervaer (1813-76), Cornelis Springer (1817-91), Johannes Bosbohm (1817-91), Johannes Weissenbruch (1822-1880), etc. Among the newest marine painters of Holland, the palm belongs to Jog. Schotel (1787-1838), Ari Plaisir (b. 1809), Hermann Koekkoek (1815-82) and Henrik Mesdag (b. 1831). Finally, animals were shown in painting great art Wouters Verschoor (1812-74) and Johann Gas (b. 1832).

Wed. Van Eyden u. van der Willigen, "Geschiedenis der vaderlandische schilderkunst, sedert de helft des 18-de eeuw" (4 volumes, 1866) A. Woltman u. K. Woermann, "Geschichte der Malerei" (2nd and 3rd volumes, 1882-1883); Waagen, "Handbuch der deutschen und niderländischen Malerschulen" (1862); Bode, "Studien zur Geschichte der holländischen Malerei" (1883); Havard, "La peinture hollandaise" (1880); E. Fromentin, "Les maîtres d"autrefois. Belgique, Hollande" (1876); A. Bredius, "Die Meisterwerke des Rijksmuseum zu Amsterdam" (1890); P. P. Semenov, " Sketches on the history of Dutch painting based on its samples located in St. Petersburg" (special supplement to the journal "Western of Fine Arts", 1885-90).