The Culture of the Netherlands in the 17th Century

 


Johan Huizinga (1872-1945) - a Dutch historian and cultural scientist of international fame. Among his most famous works, constantly reissued in different countries - and, notably, most of all in his homeland and in Russia! - are The Autumn of... the Middle Ages and the treatise Homo Ludens (Man Playing).

The Netherlands in the 17th century was the only country in Europe that reached the peak in all fields at the same time during this period. The Dutch fleet sailed around the world, the exact sciences, shipbuilding, and agriculture developed, Amsterdam became the center of global trade, new architectural masterpieces emerged, canals and dams were built. Cities established their own schools of painting, from which geniuses such as Rembrandt van Rijn, Jan Vermeer, Frans Hals, and Jacob Ruysdael emerged; the art of engraving and printing reached its peak (Jan Luyken, Pieter Saenredam). Theology and philosophy flourished (Benedict Spinoza, René Descartes). How did such a small and relatively remote swampy area of Europe, represented by the Netherlands in the 17th century, rise to become a state, a trading power, and a cultural center? Johan Huizinga in his essay The Culture of the Netherlands in the 17th Century (1941) provides a detailed analysis of the causes and features of the Republic's flourishing. The appearance of this work during the war, in the author's view, was meant to be a spiritual support for the occupied nation, to remind it of the global glory of its culture.

The publication contains more than 150 reproductions of paintings and graphic works by Dutch masters of the 17th century. The book includes a vivid satirical cycle of drawings by Johan Huizinga, illustrating some selected pages of the history of the Netherlands.