Below is my research about “Dutch Realism” movement in Art.

“Dutch Realism” (DR) is a term in fine art which refers to the style of Dutch Baroque°, DR is a form of Protestant art°° which  emerged  in contrast  to Catholic Counter Reformation Art. DR flourished in the Netherlands in 16-17th centuries during the final phase of the Eighty Years`War of Dutch Independence. To understand DR some historical reference  must be made what I do below.

_________________________________________________________________________________________

Dutch Baroque Art ° is an art of Dutch Protestants, different from Catholic style Christian art ( for example different from Italian style) which developed in the Netherlands while the country and the nation obtained lot of wealth and pride, expressing their contentment and enjoyment of the good things in life such as fine objects, solid homes, cloths and food of fine quality. The Dutch Baroque Art is represented by numerous (more than 4 mln paintings  produced during 1600-1800) portraits, interiors, still life and  genre paintings of scenes of everyday life. Dutch Baroque Art emerged at the beginning of the Golden Age (1610-1680) and preceded the one of the  greatest movements in art history – Dutch Realism, setting up standards for realism and genre painting  such as still life. The  greatest Dutch Baroque Painters are: Rembrandt van Reijn, Jan Vermeer, Meindert Hobbema, Nicolas Maes, Willem Kalf, Aelbert Cuyp, Carmel Fabritius, Samuel van Hoogstraten and many more.

__________________________________________________________________________________________

Protestant Art (“PA”) -is an art movement emerged  as a result of a great split in Christian world after a Protestant Reformation Act on Oct.31, 1517 to Roman Catholics and Protestants. Protestant Art celebrated the Protestant religious agenda and  was radically different from High Renaissance Art of Italy, Spain, Naples and other parts of Southern Europe. In general the struggle between two  branches of Christianity led to a iconoclastic destruction of Christian imagery by Protestants which perceived themselves as an opposition to everything which was a part of Catholicism including  everything what was related to and used in decoration of Catholic Church. Protestants insisted churches should be stripped of their pictures and statues, mural plaiting were whitewashed, statues were smashed or defaced, as countless stained glass art pieces,  altars were dismantled and removed, all reliquaries and  gold altars were melted down, most paintings, panel paintings, polyptychs, vestments, wood carving and other pieces of art  were  burned down and destroyed.

 The main characteristics of  PA are the following: a) usual  subjects for artists to paint  were ordinary such as common  people and ordinary everyday scenes as reflection of Protestant theology which emphasized individual relationship between  the worshipper and God; b) PA avoided many Biblical scenes such as with Virgin Mary  or Jesus Christ, grandiose  set-piece scenes from the Bible and in particular depictions of the Pope instead PA “…..focused on humble depictions of biblical scenes and moralistic depictions of  contemporary everyday life”; c) new aesthetics of PA was much plainer and unvarnished, smaller scale art because of more  personal approach to idea of God in Protestantism.

_____________________________________________________________________________________________

The main characteristics of Dutch Realism:

1) DR embraced and eveolved ALL the paiting genres such as portraits, genre paintings and still lifes; DR contained paintings only, NO sculpture  was produced in 17th century because of Protestantism`s intolerance to Catholic  religious attributes.

2) Small scale Art. Since Protestantism encouraged  a more personal relationship between a worshipper and God altars moved into houses and became a part of domestic lives. Thus instead of large scale art  a new small scale art  such as small scale panel paintings suitable for display in middle class homes became under a great demand;

3) Protestants were very much in opposition to lavishness and extreme decoration of Catholic  Church  and as a result of it DR is characterised by a modest, “down-to -earth” approach in art related to its subjects and colour palette.  Dutch artists of that time focused on ordinary people and everyday scenes of ordinary life; It should be mentioned that there is an opinion a;ong art historians that Dutch realists were not just very descriptive in their artworks which were not  just “snap shots”  of the reality.  Moreover, as Mr Blaise Ducos  (art curator at Louvre) points: “The verisimilitude of theses paintings is high, but the realism is low….. They are not like photographs. Rather, they are scenes that are arranged and rearranged, and that’s not realistic. For example, they are not portraits but paintings of ideal types: women of beauty, scholars. Some objects, such as chandeliers, were never found in domestic interiors at that time”.

4) Since the Protestant Church didnt have any demand for decorations and embellishment, artists had to  turn to and follow the demand of  growing wealthy  Dutch middle class (merchants and traders)  which didnt mind to show off their material achievements and did order and  buy still life  paintings and portraits;

5) DR continued  and perfected traditions of realism in art. Starting from detailed realism in Flemish paintings from 15th century and influence of Caravaggio, Dutch Realists worked in this genre, and the standards along with aesthetics  of their realism works have not been exceeded so far.

6) Discrete moral and piety. Most art experts agree that besides socio -historical context many still life paintings of  DR period reveal a definite moral appeal to viewers, especially those made in Vanitas genre.  As Maria Matheos says in her article ““The “seeming realism” of Dutch still life paintings”: “…The imagery of prank and vanitas still life paintings reminds us about a ephemeral nature of sensory pleasures and acts as an admonition of luxury and excess”.

7) DR is very much characterised by, what can be called as “mutual peer inspiration”.  In most articles about the art of Dutch Golden Era it is mentioned that most  artists were located in Amsterdam, Leiden and Hague and were very much exposed  to a strong competition as much as to mutual peer influence from inspiration and  learning and even copying and transforming the ideas on the market. Many art critics and art historians point our attention to the fact that many artworks of that period of time are quite similar in terms of composition and colour pallets, overall atmosphere. For example in art works  of Willem  Heda and Pieter Claesz or Pieter de Hooch` s and Jan Vermeer or Floris van Dijck and Nicolaes Gillis.

Below I put some iconic paintings of DR Art, indicating  the artists from left to right.

Jan Vermeer, “Girl with a Pearl Earring” (1666); Jan Vermeer, “The Milkmaid” (1658-1660); Pieter Claesz, “Still Life with Musical instruments” (1623); Jan Davidsz de Heem, “A Table of Desserts” (1640); Gabriel Metsu, “The Music Lesson” (1658); Aelbert Cuyp, “Landscape with Cattle” (1639);

Reference list:

1) “Dutch Golden Age Painting” by Tom Richley, Youtube;

2) “How Dutch Painters Invented  Atmosphere”, Yale University Art Gallery, Youtube;

3) “Dutch Realism. Style of Protestant Painting in 17th century Holland”, Encyclopaedia of art history, visual-arts-cork.com;

4) “Why Vermeer`s paintings are less  “real” than we think?” By Alastair Sooke, 25 April, 2017, State of the Art/ Art History at bbc.com;

5) “The “seeming realism” of Dutch still life paintings” an article by Maria Matheos, November 7th, 2018, on hasta-standrews.com;