6th July, 2010

Portrayal of Dutch through Art

Yesterday was an exciting start to the program wherein we touched the surface on a lot of topics. However, today we stepped a little deeper into the Dutch society. Professor Dewulf started the proceedings with a lecture on Dutch history leading up to the Dutch Golden Age, and Dutch artists and their works. We learnt amongst other things about the Dutch aristocracy, the liberties of the cities, the 80 year war, and about Dutch artists during the Golden Age. After the lecture, we headed to Rijksmuseum wherein I made a few interesting observations. There were paintings of many artists of varying styles and subjects on display. The “jeare” (paintings of everyday life) paintings depicted the typical Dutch culture of those days, while the “vanitas” (constant reminder that life is short) portrayed the influence of Calvinism. While these styles of paintings mainly dealt with the middle class, other more pompous paintings like those of wars, ships, generals, etc were also on display depicting the tastes of the upper class. Delving further into these paintings, I realized that there was a lot that could be learnt about the Dutch through their art. For example, paintings of people singing, dancing, drinking, working, etc portrayed daily life. On the other hand, painters such as Nicolaes Berchem, Kan Both, and Jacob van Ruisdel focused more on still life paintings, and landscapes. From subject of their paintings it is very clear that these paintings were made for sale. I dint find much artistic value in these paintings as most of them involved some sort of a water body, thereby using the symbolic importance of water as a selling point. Thus, I found it to be inconsequential as the paintings themselves spoke very little, and were more of a product than a painting.

Moving on, the influence of Calvinism also had its place in Dutch art. Many still life paintings during the Golden Age were based on the teachings of the Calvinist church. A carbon copy of the modest Calvinist teachings in the form of a painting was Jan David’s ‘de Heem’, 1660. It was a still life picture of fruits, and flowers in a vase. The symbolic bug and butterflies could be seen in many places. Interestingly, there was a cut pomegranate drawn with its little seeds falling like blood. This I feel was the clearest message that a Calvinist painter could portray. While the flowers and fruits obviously meant that life is beautiful, the insects signified that there are many things that can cut life short. The cut pomegranate and the depiction of blood in the form of seeds showed that life is short, and can end anytime.

Another buyer of paintings were aristocrats who loved paintings that showed power. The traditional way of painting this was through depiction of the army, navy, wars, generals, etc in paintings. These were paintings that famous artists like Rembrandt, and Frans Hals would paint. However, the painting of two roosters hanging by their legs by William Van Aelst was very different from others. Such a painting was supposed to be famous amongst kings, and aristocrats. This I felt showed their love for abuse of power. I consider that only somebody with dark intentions or just a sick mind would like such a painting. Nonetheless, such people did exist, and they were the ones in power. Luckily, their love for paintings allowed us to see them indirectly in a dark light.

After making a lot of connections of the paintings with the real life of those days at the museum, our program moved forward. After lunch, we met Professor Freek Bruinsma who gave us an enlightening lecture of the Dutch law, and policies focusing legalization of soft drugs, same-sex marriages, and euthanasia amongst others. I completely agreed with a lot of the rationale behind the liberal and tolerant policies of the Dutch. For example, soft drugs like cannabis don’t harm the society, and its users are many. Therefore, going after them makes little sense considering these users don’t destroy themselves, or anything around them. The real problem is with the hard drugs, and thus by being tolerant towards the soft drugs it becomes easier to go after hard drugs due to a narrower focus, and more resources. In my opinion, I find this as a very practical solution to a problem that has plagued the society since a long time. By being harsh towards soft drug users, nothing got solved. Additionally, there was little information to base policy on. Now, the Dutch can frame more effective policies as they have a lot of information which they earlier did not have access to.

Following the presentation was a tour of the red light district where I found the existence of designer boutiques there very encouraging. It showed that the red light district had more to offer than just prostitution. I felt that it added a positive spin to an area infamous for prostitution. All in all, it was a very educational day in which we learnt a lot about the Dutch society and art.