[bright string music]
- Rick Steves: While southern Europe
favored traditional Catholic rule
and the theatrical Baroque style,
the Protestant countries of the north,
while still part of the Baroque age,
were forging a different path.
Without the lavish patronage of popes and nobles,
Protestant art was more secular,
reflecting the values of a new market,
the no-nonsense merchants who paid for it.
Painters captured an industrious spirit.
Northern cities were bustling
with hardworking craftsmen and businessmen,
while sea traders headed off to distant lands.
And along with seascapes,
idyllic landscapes of fertile fields,
often land reclaimed from the sea using ingenious windmills,
celebrated Dutch industriousness.
And in the flat Netherlands,
a landscape was also a dramatic skyscape.
The lively market town of Haarlem, near Amsterdam,
looks much like it did when it was painted
back in Holland's 17th century Golden Age,
an age captured vividly on canvas.
Its most famous son, Frans Hals,
made a nice living painting portraits
of a new kind of customer: merchants.
He produced ego-boosting portraits of city big shots,
the citizens who epitomized the independent
and upwardly mobile Dutch of the time,
like these businessmen closing a deal.
They worked hard and were proud of it.
In this woman's portrait, her elegant dress and jewelry
are painted with as much care as her face,
confidently affirming the materialistic values
of the people who made the Golden Age golden.
Amsterdam, a city practically built on water,
was one of the busiest seaports in the world.
Wealth poured in from overseas,
fueling a booming society and its art.
The Dutch enjoyed showing off the fruits of their labor
in exquisitely detailed still lifes of good food.
No preachy churchyard or Greek myths here,
but a canvas reminder that this household ate very well.
And this family boasted some fine pewterware.
Paintings were intimate, with muted colors and less drama.
Virgin Marys and Apollos were out.
Cheese was in.
Perhaps for the first time,
art catered to the tastes and budgets
of middle class people too.
Smaller canvases by no-name artists
that a regular merchant could afford
and hang in his living room.
Jan Steen offered a delightful slice
of 17th century Dutch life.
Entertaining, sure.
But Steen loved to slip in a dose of folk morality.
Here, children teach a cat to dance,
mischief on their delighted faces,
but their father's upset that they're wasting time.
And these parents party
while the kids copy their irresponsible behavior.
The girls learn to drink, and the little boy picks up smoking.
As the note warns, "Parents, beware.
Your children are learning from your bad behavior."
Here, Johannes Vermeer,
the master of tranquility and stillness,
shows an intimate street from his hometown of Delft.
In his quiet painting of a humble milkmaid,
Vermeer creates a scene
where we can almost hear the trickle of the pouring milk,
capturing the beauty of everyday things.
And here, Vermeer draws the curtain
to reveal the artist at work.
The floor tiles lead the viewer in
to where he's painting a model.
The studio is a small world unto itself,
filled with beautiful and symbolic details--
the map of Holland, celebrating its trading power,
the golden chandelier, a mark of new wealth,
his fine clothing.
Everything is crystal clear, lit by a soft, cool light.
The model's caught in a candid pose
while the artist, his back to his audience,
is just another hardworking Dutchman plying his craft.