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DUTCH ARTThe Dutch collection
The Hermitage collection of Dutch painting is famous throughout the world. It is the first collectionof Western European art in Russia. The first paintings by Dutch artists were bought by Peter the Great.And later some of his paintings were moved to the Hermitage and were added to the collection of thismuseum, very large part of this collection – the Dutch collection.
 
Paintings of Dutch artists were very popular (admired because of their realistic character), and had been collected since the early 18thcentury.
The Netherlands
(Нидерланды) were under Spanish rule, and in the middle of the 16
th
century theliberation movement sprang up. It lasted for several decades (несколько десятилетий). In
1609
thecountry was split into two parts. In 1609 it resulted in the liberation of the northern part of the country.And the northern part became a republic – 
Holland
. The southern part remained under Spanish rule(the southern part is
Flanders
).So Holland became independent in 1609 because of the bourgeois revolution in the Netherlands whenseven Northern provinces broke away from the territory dominated by Spain. It was the time of upsurge(подъем) of political, economic, intellectual activities, and very soon Holland became one of the most prosperous countries.Those events influenced the development of both economy and culture in Holland, which became oneof the strongest countries of the world. Amsterdam, its capital, was one of the largest commercial as wellas cultural centers. The fact that the struggle for independence from Spain was being combined with thestruggle against the domination of the Spanish Catholic church led to the achievement of a real freedom of thought in Holland. There were changes in Holland not only in the political sphere, but in the sphere of religion. There was no Catholic church in Holland, there was Protestant church. Calvinism became themain religion in Holland. This church (the Protestant church) was not interested in the art of painting.Unlike Spain, the majority of paintings were not commissioned by the church; the patrons of art weremostly merchants, ship owners and other well-to-do members of the middle class who expected that a painter should reflect real life as it was. Most of the customers were well-to-do people and ordinary people; they wanted paintings on subjects taken from everyday life. As a rule, paintings were of smaller size. The size of paintings actually gave the name to the artists, they were called
Les petits Hollandes
,
minor Dutchmen
,
small Dutchmen
, or simply
Dutch art
. That was the period of the highest point in thedevelopment of Dutch art.All this accounts for the peculiarities of the works of the majority of Dutch artists of the period, particularly those of the
"Little Dutch Masters"
.The
"LITTLE DUTCH MASTERS"
produced small paintings designed to suit the tastes of Dutch burghers. The Hermitage has the paintings by almost all "Little Dutch Masters". As a rule, each painter specialized in one particular genre to make the sale easier. The five prevailing genres were
portraitpainting, genre scenes, still life, animalistic painting, and landscapes
. The collection of SmallHollanders or Little Dutch Masters is displayed in the
Tent Hall
.
 Шатровый зал (Tent Hall 
). Thename is due to the shape of the ceiling. This hall is used for display of the collection of Dutch paintingof the 17th century. It had some very peculiar features that are different from the art of other countries.The Dutch studied nature, everything which was around them, very meticulously(тщательно). Theyfound poetry in very simple landscapes of their own country. It was a demand of the customers. Theywere very precise in depicting these native landscapes. They painted realistic landscapes.So that one of the popular genres was
Landscape
. The most successful landscape painter in thesecond half of the 17th century was
JACOB VAN RUISDAEL
(1629-1682). This painter isrepresented in the Hermitage collection with 11 paintings. Landscape painting was highly specialized.Each artist painted a certain kind of landscape, such as "seascapes", "forests" and even "winter views inmoonlight"; however, Ruisdael’s talent was many-sided and he painted all types of landscapes. Hisfavourite type was the dramatic landscape, which represented an emotional state of nature. One of his most celebrated works is the
"Marsh"
, which depicts a mysterious, romantic forest typical of the
1
 
artist's style.
Animalistic genre or Animalistic painting.
Another peculiarity of the art of the Dutch painters was their fondness of depicting animals. Whereas painters of other art schools used to include human figures in their landscapes, the Dutch masters includedanimals which were often the most important part of the painting. At the same time, many artists-landscapists were greatly interested in depicting different animals. They studied different breeds of animals and they tried to show these animals at their best, to show peculiarities of one or another  breed.One of the best animalists was
PAUL POTTER (1625-1654).
His paintings are
“Farm” 
and
"Punishment of a Hunter"
. The artist represented in “
The Farm”
different domestic animals that he painted with a simple landscape in the ground. This painting was one of Napoleon’s favourite paintingswhich he brought along on all his military campaigns. It came to this collection from the collection of his wife
 Josephine Beauharnais
. The painting was bought by Alexander I from Josephine, Napoleon'sfirst wife.
"Punishment of a Hunter"
represents a popular Dutch fable. The painting consists of number of smallmarginal pictures depicting hunting scenes; the bigger-size pictures in the centre depict the story itself.On the canvas there are 14 small pictures around the two central ones.It is forbidden to go hunting on the Holy Friday, but once a hunter went hunting on that particular day.The animals decided to punish the cruel hunter. They caught him and put him to trial. The upper central picture depicts the trial in great detail: the Elephant is the Judge, the Fox is the Prosecutor, and the Lion isat the head of the court. The verdict of the court is pronounced and the cruel hunter is sentenced to deaththrough burning. The lower central picture depicts the execution. The hunter was burnt on the grill andhis hounds were hanged.
“Punishment of a hunter”
might be interpreted as well as the subject from one of theApocryphal(апокрифический, недостоверный) Evangels “The vision of Saint Hubert”. Saint Hubertwas a very enthusiastic hunter who did not stop hunting on Good Friday (Страстная пятница, в тотдень был распят Христос). He had a vision of a stag with a cross on his head. When we look at theupper part of a picture, we can find a Mythological scene about Diana and Acteon. Acteon was ayoung hunter. Once he saw her bathing nude; he was punished by the Goddess, turned into stag and asa result was torn to pieces by his own hunting dogs.
Genre painting
 
or genre scenes.
The collection of Dutch genre painting is exceptionally rich in the Hermitage. Genre painting was widelydeveloped in Holland as in no other country in Europe, as it was generally regarded as "inferior"(подчиненный; младший по чину; стоящий ниже). The subjects of the paintings were very conventional(обычный, обыкновенный, традиционный): "reading a letter", "visit of a physician", "visit of a postman", "a glass of lemonade" etc.; so it is the way the subjects were treated rather than the subjectsthemselves that is most important. The subjects often served merely as a pretext for magnificentreproductions of furniture, clothing, and interiors.
Pieter de Hoh (1629-1684)
. “
 A Landlady and her Servant” 
Again the artist depicts a scene with care for all details, everything he could see in everyday life. Thescene is depicted in three-dimension. The lady and her servant are shown as very tidy and cleandressed, and the interior of the house is rendered in the same manner: cleanliness, order aredominating there.
GABRIEL METSU
"Breakfast"
Genre painting was very popular in Holland. People in Holland would read genre paintings like booksand very often find more sense in the painting than there was on the face of it. The scene of the paintinglooks quite decent, but some details make it obscene (неприличный).
GERARD TERBORCH (1617-1681) [‘tε:bek]
was famous for his wonderful sense of texture
2
 
which he displayed in his paintings
"A Glass of Lemonade"
and
"Reading a Letter"
. Art critics spokeof him as "silky Terborch". The brilliant rendering of textures makes his paintings look rather likestill life with human figures.
"Reading a Letter".
The subject was introduced by Terborch himself, who was an experienced traveler. To send and receiveletters was a fashion in Holland at that time. Some details tell us more about the reader and letter.
“A Glass of Lemonade”
The subject itself was not very important for Terborch. Usually he painted replicas of the same picture. He was more inclined to render different materials – silk, velvet.
JAN STEEN (
1626-1679) "Visit of a Physician"
, or "A Sick Girl and a Doctor".
This subject was very common in Dutch art and the real story can be deduced ((логически) выведенный)from its details: a doctor came to visit a sick girl and discovered that the reason for her sickness was thatshe was pregnant. They say that on the reverse side of one of the copies of this painting there is aninscription made by the artist himself, which reads, "There is no remedy if the cause of illness is love."Another his picture is
"The Revellers"
depicts the artist himself and his wife (herself the daughter of awell-known painter Jan Van Goyen) as drunken visitors to a tavern. The artist often observed such scenesin real life, for he ran a small inn. Each object in the painting is painted brilliantly, in an almost miniaturemanner. The numerous symbolic details narrate the story and reflect the artist’s philosophy.The subject was very important for this artist and, like all other Dutch artists, he was interested insmall details. He always treated the chosen subjects with a sense of humor.The competition among artists in Holland was so high that they could not earn their living by painting alone and had to seek another job. Thus, Van Ruisdael was a professional doctor and JanSteen, an inn-keeper.
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