The Golden Age of Dutch Painting

In the 17th century, the painters' guild in Holland was the largest: there were four times more artists than butchers and twice as many as bakers! Moreover, it was in this country that the art market for the free buying... and selling of paintings was formed, which led to an extraordinary diversity of their subjects, themes, and genres - Dutch masters finally developed such popular genres as still life, landscape, portrait, and genre painting.
The flourishing of Dutch painting naturally led to the emergence of great artists such as Rembrandt, Vermeer, Hals, as well as the fruitful activity of a group of painters now commonly referred to as "the little Dutchmen." They created many famous paintings that brought worldwide fame to the visual arts of Holland.
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