Dutch Masters From the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

Exhibition themes:
Regents and Patricians in the Republic

Whereas elsewhere in Europe the court and the aristocracy set the tone, in the Dutch Republic it was the wealthy middle classes who dominated art and culture. In the mid-sixteenth century, Holland was part of the Spanish empire, presided over by the Catholic king Philip II. The growth of the Protestant movement in the northern part of the Netherlands led eventually to open revolt, and the establishment of the United Provinces of the Netherlands in 1581. While this new, independent and Protestant nation was presided over at various times throughout the seventeenth century by a military stadholder, power devolved increasingly away from the old aristocracy, and into the hands of financial and civic authorities. In the second half of the seventeenth century there were growing numbers of regents and well-to-do burghers whose wealth enabled them to enjoy a way of life previously reserved for the nobility. This was a favourable climate for the arts. Patrons justly proud of their success or their family's standing were eager to have themselves immortalized in paint and stone. A huge number of professional painters emerged to satisfy this widespread demand for art.

William III of Orange, stadholder since 1672, and his English-born wife Mary Stuart, who became king and queen of England in 1689, were equally enthusiastic art-lovers. They had a number of palaces built, furnished and decorated, in England as well as in the Republic. As a result, Dutch taste was imported into England where it influenced architecture, art and design for several decades. Among the commissions awarded to painters there were many canvases devoted to William's great passion: the hunt. Mary Stuart was an avid collector of blue and white delftware, and during this period the faience industry in Delft flourished as never before.

Items unloaded from ships at Amsterdam on 27 June 1634: '326,733 1/2 Amsterdam pounds of Malacca pepper; 297,446 lb. of cloves; 292,623 lb. of saltpetre; 141,278 lb. of indigo; 483,082 lb. of sappan wood; 219,027 pieces of blue Ming ware; 52 further chests of Korean and Japanese porcelain, 75 large vases and pots containing preserved confections, much of it spiced ginger; 660 lb. of Japanese copper; 241 pieces of fine Japanese lacquer work; 3,989 rough diamonds of large carat; 93 boxes of pearls and rubies (misc. carats); 603 bales of dressed Persian silks and grosgreins; 1,115 lb. of raw Chinese silk; 199,800 lb. of unrefined Kandy sugar [from Ceylon].'

Johan de Brune, Emblemata, Middelburg, 1664

'As it was said by men in the Olden Times that there was a land that flowed with milk and honey, truly it is in our Holland and here in Amsterdam that the town overflows with milk and cheese and butter brought to market every week ... So that truly may it be said that our Holland overflows with butter, cheese and milk and that these blessings we receive from the hands of the Almighty'

Melchior Fokkens, Beschryvinge der Wijdt-Vermaarde Koop-Stadt Amstelredam, Amsterdam, 1664