Author Description

This volume is the first to present Dutch art and architecture as a whole. But the principal stress of the book likes on painting. The section on architecture has seven drawings in the text, and there are 208 half-tone plates which reproduce well over 300 photographs, combining the presentation of the most famous with that of many unfamiliar works. The breaching of the Spanish hold on Holland let loose one of the most fertile floods of artistic activity in European history. This was the age of Frans Hals and Rembrandt, of Vermeer, De Hooch, Jan Steen and Ruisdael. By the diversity of their portraits and interiors, their landscapes, seascapes and still lifes, and their genre painting, the Dutch masters have bequeathed to us almost every detail of their times. This study concentrates on Dutch painting in the 17th century in an effort to testify to the richness of this superb era.