Full Description
During the period of Rembrandt's career the Amsterdam art market grew with breathtaking speed. Each painter had to secure a place professionally and make a living, which would have been no small matter. In what kind of paintings should he specialize? How could he distinguish his works from those of his colleagues and find buyers for his products? How did he acquire a reputation, and how much were clients willing to pay? Every painter would have continuously asked himself such pressing questions. These are also the leading questions of this study, which examines the depiction of Biblical and other religious themes, classical mythology, and classical and post-classical literature across the entire range of production, from expensive high-quality works to cheap pictures. The book begins at the moment that a considerable number of young artists - among them Rembrandt - settled in Amsterdam. Twenty years later, the quantity, diversity and quality of the production of history paintings, propelled by artistic rivalry, reached its summit.
Contents
1. Acknowledgement; 2. Introduction; 3. I. 'Here is the stock exchange and the money, and the love of art.' An introduction to the Golden Age of Amsterdam and its history painting; 4. II. Great ambitions and stunning innovations. Newcomers settling in Amsterdam: Rembrandt, Flinck, Sandrart, Backer and Breenbergh; 5. II A. Rembrandt and Sandrart; 6. II B. Flinck, Backer and Breenbergh; 7. III. A network of moderately successful Amsterdam natives. Claes Moyaert, Adriaen van Nieulandt, Isaac Isaacsz and Salomon Koninck; 8. IV. Of modest masters and cheap production: David Colijns, Rombout van Troyen, Daniel Thivart, Jan Micker and others; 9. V. An occasional history painting by specialists in other fields: Thomas de Keyser, Nicolaes Eliasz Pickenoy, Dirck Dircksz Santvoort, Pieter Codde, and Pieter Potter; 10. VI. Two minor masters looking at Rembrandt: Willem Bartsius and Gerrit Willemsz Horst; 11. VII. A younger generation of talented artists starting out around 1640: The early careers of Ferdinand Bol, Gerbrand van den Eeckhout and Jan Victors, and the beginnings of the Amsterdam careers of Jacob van Loo and Jan Lievens; 12. VIII. Summarizing epilogue; 13. Notes; 14. Bibliography
