Page 418 - Western Civilization A Brief History, Volume I To 1715 9th - Jackson J. Spielvogel

FRENCH CLASSICISM AND DUTCH REALISM In the second half of the seventeenth century, France replaced Italy as the cultural leader of Europe. Rejecting the Baroque style as showy and overly passionate, the French remained committed to the classical values of the High Renaissance. French late Classicism, with its emphasis on clarity, simplicity, balance, and harmony of design, was a rather austere version of the High Renaissance style. Its triumph reflected the shift in seventeenth- century French society from chaos to order. Though it rejected the emotionalism and high drama of the Ba- roque, French Classicism continued the Baroque’s con- ception of grandeur in the portrayal of noble subjects, especially those from classical antiquity.
A brilliant flowering of Dutch painting paralleled the supremacy of Dutch commerce in the seventeenth century. Wealthy patricians and burghers of Dutch urban society commissioned works of art for their guild halls, town halls, and private dwellings. The interests of this burgher society were reflected in the subject matter of many Dutch paintings: portraits of themselves, landscapes, seascapes, genre scenes, still lifes, and the interiors of their residences. Neither Classical nor Baroque, Dutch painters were primarily interested in the realistic portrayal of secular every- day life.
The finest product of the golden age of Dutch painting was Rembrandt van Rijn (REM-brant vahn
Rembrandt van Rijn, The Night Watch. Dutch burghers and patricians of Dutch urban society commissioned works of art, and these quite naturally reflected the burghers’ interests. This painting by Rembrandt shows the two leaders and sixteen members of a civic militia preparing for a parade in the city of Amsterdam.
380 Chapter 15 State Building and the Search for Order in the Seventeenth Century
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