Learning Outcomes:
On completion of this module students should be able to:
1. Identify major works of Dutch genre art from the 17th century and account for the essential developments in this category of painting;
2. Place significant genre paintings from this period in their political, cultural and economic contexts;
3. Demonstrate an understanding of the dynamics of the production and marketing of art during the period;
4. Demonstrate an understanding and knowledge of relevant 17th-century sources, which have a bearing on genre art, as well as present-day critical responses, such as the debates around meaning and interpretation.
Indicative Module Content:
The content of the module is updated regularly. Among the lectures and seminar themes will be:
- genre painters and the market
- the origins of genre art
- the interpretation of genre paintings
- early developments in Haarlem and Amsterdam
- Leiden fijnschilders and Utrecht Caravaggisti
- Frans Hals and painting in Haarlem
- Pieter de Hooch and images of domesticity
- Rembrandt and genre art
- the sophisticated art of Gerard ter Borch
- Humour in Dutch art
- Why do Vermeer's paintings look so different?
- the representation of women in Vermeer's work
- Jan Steen - master storyteller
- the aristocratisation of genre paining in the Dutch Republic.