Author Description

The Netherlands and India experienced a period of economic prosperity and cultural prosperity in the seventeenth century. During this shared Golden Age both countries became profoundly influenced by increasing globalization and developed into large global empires. Thanks to the United East India Company (VOC), the two countries met and intensive interaction developed. While Indian textiles caused a small revolution in the Dutch consumption pattern, the VOC contributed with its precious metals to the monetary stability of the Indian Mogul Empire. In addition to trade contacts, there was an intellectual undercurrent that had united the countries for centuries: the hidden world of the Neoplatonic imagination that brought about a remarkable artistic equal voices between Dutch and Indian artists. The hidden world appears in the Country series of the History department of the Rijksmuseum. On the basis of objects from the collection of the Rijksmuseum, this series describes the shared past of the Netherlands and Indonesia, Japan, China, India, Sri Lanka, South Africa, Ghana, Suriname and Brazil, respectively.