![]() They indicate wealth and good taste, and they allude to Holland’s importance as a nation of traders who import beautiful objects from around the world. ![]() But the remaining items, including a spiral ribbed clear glass cruet for oil or vinegar behind the tin bowl of oysters, the green glass wine römer, or goblet, decorated with prunts (applied blobs of molten glass, here drawn into points), and the tall, heavily ornamented, and gilded vessel topped by a lid with a figure of a warrior, are all luxury goods. (Figure 5.1) The tin plates and open-lidded pewter pitcher are relatively simply fashioned and could have been made by local craftsmen. The subject of Heda’s painting, Still Life with a Gilt Cup, is ostensibly the remains of a meal of oysters and bread, but it is even more about all the objects accompanying the food. This led to interest in new subjects in painting, such as genre and still life painting, as well as landscapes, city views, portraits, and religious subjects in works meant to hang in the home. Patrons of art were not looking to purchase sculptures and paintings for churches, however, as Protestants do not embellish their houses of worship they do not adorn the word of God as found in the Bible. ![]() Their knowledge of and appreciation for art, along with their discretionary income, in turn led to increased patronage. The rise of the merchant class (equivalent to today’s middle class) led to the spread of education and wealth among new segments of society. In the midst of this ongoing turmoil over politics and religion, as well as decades of disruption and destruction caused by war, the Netherlands also experienced a time of tremendous economic growth, revolutionary scientific exploration, dominance in worldwide trade, and flourishing of the arts. With the signing of the Peace of Westphalia in 1648, the Spanish crown officially acknowledged the republic of Holland. Fighting continued on and off between the Dutch and Spanish until 1618 when they both became embroiled in a larger European War known as the Thirty Years War (1618-1648). The southern area that remained under Catholic Spanish rule was known as Flanders and is modern Belgium. In 1581, the seven northern provinces of the Netherlands were declared independent, forming what we still know as Holland today. William I, Prince of Orange, a Dutch nobleman, turned away from his position in the court of the Habsburg rulers to lead his country into the Dutch War for Independence from Spain, more commonly known as the Eighty Years War (1568-1648). Followers of the new Protestant faith were at first tolerated by the Catholic Spanish rulers, but they were soon treated as heretics, and their faith was seen as a rebellion to be crushed. At the same time, the Protestant Reformation that originated in Wittenberg, Germany, under Martin Luther in 1517 had spread through much of northern Europe, including parts of the Netherlands. Tension created by family members who remained in place to rule led to friction with the Dutch and eventually to revolt beginning in 1566. Charles V left the Netherlands in 1515, however, to become King of Spain. What is today the Netherlands (or Holland) and Belgium were together ruled first by the Dukes of Burgundy, the Burgundians, beginning in 1433 and then by Charles V of the Habsburg family in 1506. There are a number of things going on in the Netherlands in the 1600s known as the Dutch Golden Age that can help explain why Heda and de Heem included some of the objects in their paintings. Each was well known for his ability to depict a variety of textures and surfaces often displayed side-by-side, as we can see here, to create a dazzling and sumptuous visual array. Both Heda and de Heem specialized in painting still lifes that were beautifully arranged and stunningly lifelike. A still life falls into a subject category known as genre subjects or scenes of everyday life. He briefly returned to Utrecht but settled back in Antwerp in the 1670s where he remained until his death.Īlthough depicting different types of things, each of these paintings is a still life, an arrangement of objects both made by humans and found in nature, such as flowers, fruit, insects, sea creatures, and animals from the hunt. (Figures 5.1 and 5.2) Heda lived in his native Haarlem his entire life de Heem was born in Utrecht but traveled in the Netherlands and then lived in Antwerp for the majori- ty of his career, c. de Heem painted Still Life with Flowers around 1660. Heda (1594-1680, Netherlands) created Still Life with a Gilt Cup in 1635, and Jan Davidsz. We can learn about the historical context to help us interpret the content and understand the meaning of two seventeenth-century Dutch paintings.
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