Chapter 25: The Baroque in Northern Europe
Preview: This chapter surveys art in the Netherlands, Flanders, France and England produced in
the 17th century. Catholic Flanders remained under Spanish control in this period, and its art is
close in spirit to the Baroque art of Italy. The leading Flemish Baroque painter is Peter Paul
Rubens, who executed commissions for an international clientele. The Treaty of Westphalia
granted the Dutch Republic independence from Spain in 1648, and its predominantly Protestant
citizens, including a growing middle class, commissioned portraits, genre scenes, still lifes and
landscapes. Frans Hals specialized in lively, inventive portrait arrangements, while Rembrandt
van Rijn, who is regarded as the greatest Dutch artist of the era, treated a wide range of subjects in
paintings and prints. In France, Louis XIV was the major patron, commissioning artworks for the
enormous palace complex he built at Versailles, which exhibits a blend of Italian Baroque and
French classical styles. Nicolas Poussin and Claude Lorraine were widely recognized for classical
paintings. In England, architects Inigo Jones and Christopher Wren enjoyed international fame for
buildings such as Wren’s Saint Paul’s in London, which blend Italian Renaissance, Baroque, and
French classical styles.
Key Figures: Louis XIV, Marie de’ Medici
Key Cultural Terms & Events: Thirty Years’ War (1618-1648), Treaty of Westphalia (1648),
Calvinism, Protestantism
Key Art Terms: vanitas, still life, memento mori, camera obscura, classical paintings, “grand
manner” painting, fleur-de-lis, breakfast piece, flower paintings, genre scenes, monochromatic,
etching
Lecture Notes:
Introductory Notes:
THE BAROQUE IN NORTHERN EUROPE
Flanders:
Painting:
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Brueghel and Rubens, Allegory of Sight, ca. 1617-1618
o Description & subject:
o Stylistic features:
o Significance:
Peter Paul Rubens, Elevation of the Cross, from Saint Walburga, Antwerp, 1610
o Medium/materials:
o Size/scale:
o Subject:
o Stylistic features:
o Function & significance:
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Rubens, Garden of Love, 1630-1632
o Description & subject:
o Stylistic features:
o Significance:
Rubens, Arrival of Marie de’ Medici at Marseilles, 1622-1625
o Medium/materials:
o Size/scale:
o Subject:
o Stylistic features:
o Function & significance:
Rubens, Consequences of War, 1638-1639
o Medium/materials:
o Size/scale:
o Subject:
o Stylistic features:
o Function & significance:
Anthony Van Dyck, Charles I Dismounted, ca. 1635
o Medium/materials:
o Size/scale:
o Subject:
o Stylistic features:
o Function & significance:
Clara Peeters, Still Life with Flowers, Goblet, Dried Fruit, and Pretzels, 1611
o Medium/materials:
o Size/scale:
o Subject:
o Stylistic features:
o Function & significance:
Dutch Republic:

Pieter Claesz, Vanitas Still Life, 1630s
o Medium/materials:
o Size/scale:
o Subject:
o Stylistic features:
o Function & significance:
Ter Brugghen, van Honthorst, Hals, Leyster:

Hendrick ter Brugghen, Calling of Saint Matthew, 1621
o Medium/materials:
o Size/scale:
o Subject:
o Stylistic features:
o Function & significance:


Gerrit van Honthorst, Supper Party, 1620
Hendrick ter Brugghen, Calling of Saint Matthew, 1621
o Medium/materials:
o Size/scale:
o Subject:
o Stylistic features:
o Function & significance:

Frans Hals, Archers of Saint Hadrian, ca. 1633
o Medium/materials:
o Size/scale:
o Subject:
o Stylistic features:
o Function & significance:
Frans Hals, The Women Regents of the Old Men’s Home at Haarlem, 1664
o Materials/medium:
o Size/scale:
o Subject:
o Stylistic features:
o Function & significance:
Judith Leyster, Self-Portrait, ca. 1630
o Materials/medium:
o Size/scale:
o Subject:
o Stylistic features:
o Function & significance:
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Rembrandt van Rijn:
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Rembrandt van Rijn, Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Tulp, 1632
o Materials/medium:
o Size/scale:
o Subject:
o Stylistic features:
o Function & significance:
Rembrandt van Rijn, The Company of Captian Frans Banning Cocq (Night Watch), 1642
o Materials/medium:
o Size/scale:
o Subject:
o Stylistic features:
o Function & significance:
Rembrandt, Blinding of Samson, 1636
o Description, subject & significance:
Rembrandt van Rijn, Return of the Prodigal Son, ca. 1665
o Materials/medium:
o Size/scale:



o Subject:
o Stylistic features:
o Function & significance:
Rembrandt van Rijn, Self-Portrait, 1658
o Description & significance:
Rembrandt van Rijn, Self-Portrait, 1659-1660
o Materials/medium:
o Size/scale:
o Subject:
o Stylistic features:
o Function & significance:
Rembrandt van Rijn, Christ with the Sick around Him, Receiving the Children (HundredGuilder Print), ca. 1649
o Materials/medium:
o Size/scale:
o Subject:
o Stylistic features:
o Function & significance:
Cuyp and Ruisdael:
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Aelbert Cuyp, Distant View of Dordrecht, with a Milkmaid and Four Cows, and Other Figures
(The “Large Dort”), late 1640s
o Materials/medium:
o Size/scale:
o Subject:
o Stylistic features:
o Function & significance:
Jacob van Ruisdael, Jewish Cemetery, ca. 1655-1660
o Description & subject:
o Stylistic features:
Jacob van Ruisdael, View of Haarlem from the Dunes at Overveen, ca. 1670
o Materials/medium:
o Size/scale:
o Subject:
o Stylistic features:
o Function & significance:
Vermeer and Steen:
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
Jan Vermeer, View of Delft, ca. 1661
o Description & significance:
Jan Vermeer, Woman Holding a Balance, ca. 1664
o Materials/medium:
o Size/scale:
o Subject:
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
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o Stylistic features:
o Function & significance:
Jan Vermeer, Allegory of the Art of Painting, 1670-1675
o Materials/medium:
o Size/scale:
o Subject:
o Stylistic features:
o Function & significance:
Vermeer, The Letter, 1666
o Description:
Jan Steen, Feast of Saint Nicholas, ca. 1660-1665
o Materials/medium:
o Size/scale:
o Subject:
o Stylistic features:
o Function & significance:
Kalf and Ruysch
 Willem Kalf, Still Life with a Late Ming Ginger Jar, 1669
o Materials/medium:
o Size/scale:
o Subject:
o Stylistic features:
o Function & significance:
 Rachel Ruysch, Flower Still Life, after 1700
o Materials/medium:
o Size/scale:
o Subject:
o Stylistic features:
o Function & significance:
France:
Louis XIV:



Hyacinthe Rigaud, Louis XIV, 1701
o Materials/medium:
o Size/scale:
o Subject:
o Stylistic features:
o Function & significance:
Claude Perrault, Louis Le Vau, and Charles Le Brun, east façade of the Louvre, Paris, France,
1667-1670
o Description, architectural & stylistic features:
o Function & significance:
Aerial view of the palace and gardens, Versailles, France, begun 1669



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o Description, architectural & stylistic features:
o Function & significance:
Jules Hardouin-Mansart and Charles Le Brun, Galerie des Glaces (Hall of Mirrors), palace of
Versailles, Versailles, France, ca. 1680
o Description, architectural & stylistic features:
o Function & significance:
François Girardon and Thomas Regnaudin, Apollo Attended by the Nymphs, Grotto of Thetis,
Park of Versailles, Versailles, France, ca. 1666-1672
o Medium/materials and scale:
o Subject:
o Function & significance:
Jules Hardouin-Mansart, interior of the Royal Chapel, with ceiling decorations by Antoine
Coypel, palace of Versailles, Versailles, France, 1698-1710
o Description:
o Ornamental and architectural features:
o Function and significance:
Jules Hardouin-Mansart, Église du Dôme (looking north), Church of the Invalides, Paris,
France, 1676-1706
o Description and architectural features:
o Function & significance:
Poussin:


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Nicolas Poussin, Et in Arcadia Ego, ca. 1566
o Materials/medium:
o Size/scale:
o Subject:
o Stylistic features:
o Function & significance:
Nicholas Poussin, Landscape with Saint John on Patmos, 1640
o Materials/medium:
o Size/scale:
o Subject:
o Stylistic features:
o Function & significance:
Poussin, Burial of Phocion, 1648
o Description & significance:
Claude Lorrain:

Claude Lorrain, Landscape with Cattle and Peasants, 1629
o Materials/medium:
o Size/scale:
o Subject:
o Stylistic features:
o Function & significance:
Le Nain, Callot, La Tour:

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Louis Le Nain, Family of Country People, ca. 1640
o Materials/medium:
o Size/scale:
o Subject:
o Stylistic features:
o Function & significance:
Jacques Callot, Hanging Tree, from the Miseries of War series, 1629-1633
o Materials/medium:
o Size/scale:
o Subject:
o Stylistic features:
o Function & significance:
Georges de La Tour, Adoration of the Shepherds, 1645-1650
o Materials/medium:
o Size/scale:
o Subject:
o Stylistic features:
o Function & significance:
England:
Jones and Wren:


Inigo Jones, Banqueting House, Whitehall, London, England, 1619-1622
o Description:
o Architectural features & style:
o Function & significance:
Sir Christopher Wren, west façade of Saint Paul’s Cathedral, London, England, 1675-1710
o Description:
o Architectural features & style:
o Function & significance:
Concluding notes:
Exercises for Study:
1. Select a painting by Peter Paul Rubens, and describe the features it shares with Italian Late
Renaissance and Baroque painting styles.
2. Describe Rembrandt’s innovation in rendering light, in both paintings and in prints.
3. What historical factors account for the large demand for secular artworks, including genre
scenes, still lifes, portraits and landscapes in the Dutch Republic in the 17th century?
4. Compare and contrast the following pairs of artworks, using the points of comparison as a
guide.
A. Jacob van Ruisdael, View of Haarlem from the Dunes at Overveen (Fig. 25-18); Claude Lorrain,
Landscape with Cattle and Peasants (Fig. 25-33)

Nationality of artists:

Subject & theme:

Specificity of landscape site:

Use of perspective (atmospheric and linear):
B. Jan Steen, Feast of Saint Nicholas (Fig. 25-21); Pieter Claesz, Vanitas Still Life (Fig. 25-1)

Subjects:

Style:

Allegorical dimension / use of symbols:
C. Claude Perrault, Louis Le Vau, and Charles Le Brun, east façade of the Louvre (Fig. 25-25); Inigo
Jones, Banqueting House, Whitehall (Fig. 25-37)

Location:

Architectural features:

Use of Italian styles: