What do you think?
Rate this book
Art and Commerce in the Dutch Golden Age
During the seventeenth century, the Netherlands--a small country with just two million inhabitants and virtually no natural resources--enjoyed a "Golden Age" of economic success, world power, and tremendous artistic output. In this book North examines the Dutch Golden Age, when Dutch society boasted Europe`s greatest number of cities and highest literacy rate, unusually large numbers of publicly and privately owned art works, religious tolerance, and a highly structured and wide-ranging social network.
- GenresHistory
176 pages, Hardcover
First published June 15, 1992
4 people are currently reading
76 people want to read
About the author
Michael North
29 books3 followersMichael North ist ein deutscher Historiker. Er studierte Osteuropäische Geschichte, Mittlere und Neuere Geschichte sowie Slawistik. Er wurde 1979 in Gießen promoviert. Seit 1995 ist er Inhaber des Lehrstuhls für Allgemeine Geschichte der Neuzeit an der Universität Greifswald.
Zu seinen Forschungsschwerpunkten im Rahmen der Geschichte Europas zählen insbesondere die Geschichte der Niederlande, die Geschichte des Ostseeraums, die Geld- und Bankengeschichte, Kommunikation sowie Kunstmärkte und -sammlungen.
---------------
Michael North is a German historian. He studied Eastern European History, Medieval and Modern History and Slavic Studies. He received his doctorate in 1979 in Gießen. Since 1995 he has held the chair of General History of the Modern Era at the University of Greifswald.
His main research interests in the context of the history of Europe include in particular the history of the Netherlands, the history of the Baltic Sea region, the history of money and banking, communication as well as art markets and collections.
Zu seinen Forschungsschwerpunkten im Rahmen der Geschichte Europas zählen insbesondere die Geschichte der Niederlande, die Geschichte des Ostseeraums, die Geld- und Bankengeschichte, Kommunikation sowie Kunstmärkte und -sammlungen.
---------------
Michael North is a German historian. He studied Eastern European History, Medieval and Modern History and Slavic Studies. He received his doctorate in 1979 in Gießen. Since 1995 he has held the chair of General History of the Modern Era at the University of Greifswald.
His main research interests in the context of the history of Europe include in particular the history of the Netherlands, the history of the Baltic Sea region, the history of money and banking, communication as well as art markets and collections.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
June 22, 2024
Küçük bir kitap olmasına karşın sanat ve ortaya çıktığı koşulları güçlü bir şekilde kavrıyor. Hollanda’nın bankacılık ve limanla gelişen ekonomisinin sonuçları açısında çok çok iyi değerlendirilmiş bir sanat kitabı. Sanat/Hayat serisinde en beğendiğim ve diğerlerinden farklı kitap oldu.
May 20, 2019
The Dutch Golden Age is an important and instructive episode in history that deserves to be better known outside of the Netherlands. Against the typical narrative that places the origin of modern enrichment in England, that enrichment arguably began a century earlier in Holland. What is more, much as the flourishing commerce of the Italian city-states is associated with the art of the Renaissance, the Dutch Golden Age too was an era of artistic as well as material enrichment.
Michael North's book manages to survey the period from an economic, a sociological, and an art-historic point of view, and all within 140 pages. Anyone even moderately curious about this episode of history and especially the social place of art in it owes it to themselves to pick this volume up.
Michael North's book manages to survey the period from an economic, a sociological, and an art-historic point of view, and all within 140 pages. Anyone even moderately curious about this episode of history and especially the social place of art in it owes it to themselves to pick this volume up.
April 16, 2023
Well researched and chock full of data, but how are the pictures of that beautiful art is black & white!?
June 15, 2025
"Competition and innovation amon the painters were also closely linked in the seventeenth-century Dutch painting. In contrast with the Renaissance, however, Dutch painters were not supported by a few well-to-do clients but were erliant upon a broader clientele. Innovation came to a standstill only when the market for contemporary art was saturated and the nouveaux riches began to demand old masters, expensive fine paintings or even Italian paintings, at the same time as the wide ranger of art works began to diminish. This meant that the exchange of ideas between artistic centers and the mobility of the artists lessened-even in. a country as densely populated as the Netherlands. The people also seem to have been less mobile. Artistic production stagnated above all in small cities, even though the population continued to benefit from the economic, cultural, and social achievements of the Golden Age for a long time." (North, pg. 138).
All too brief (like the moment it chronicles!) this book, "Art and Commerce in the Dutch Golden Age," by esteemed critic Michael North, is an essential and exemplary foray into the nature of the society of, and the Art of, the Dutch "Golden Age." Part history book, part sociological treatise, and all intriguing and interesting, "Art and Commerce," due to its aforementioned brevity, must serve as a 'dipping into' the surface of the subject it treats, for a 'real' study would have to be much, much longer in nature. However, this brevity does no harm to its main function: to provide an overview of the period that is its focus and to answer the query regarding as to why the Golden Age was so stellar in its nature. To this end, the author does a fine job of explicating as to the role the environment, the industry, the location, the history, and the attributes of the Dutch in this particular time period. So, if one reads this book, expect less on the aesthetic side of things (techniques, colors, emphases) and more on the sociology of painting (the why, the data as to what caused the aforementioned age). And this is all for the best, for the author, even with his limitations of time and space, does a fine job of explaining 'why' the Dutch, during this period, 'shined' so well. For instance, he announces that while during the Italian Renaissance there were approximately 1 artist for every 10,000 Italians, during the Dutch "Golden Age" there was 1 artist every 2 or three thousand residents. No wonder why there was such a plethora of Art! Facts like these, smoothly presented and persuasively articulated, are scattered throughout the tome, adding immeasurably to the reader's edification and joy. Read this book if one desires an acquaintance with the history and society that created the Dutch Golden Age; read this book if one wants to gain credence in the world of Art; read it if one wants to become 'greater' in the whys and wherefores of Art appreciation! A good book this is!
All too brief (like the moment it chronicles!) this book, "Art and Commerce in the Dutch Golden Age," by esteemed critic Michael North, is an essential and exemplary foray into the nature of the society of, and the Art of, the Dutch "Golden Age." Part history book, part sociological treatise, and all intriguing and interesting, "Art and Commerce," due to its aforementioned brevity, must serve as a 'dipping into' the surface of the subject it treats, for a 'real' study would have to be much, much longer in nature. However, this brevity does no harm to its main function: to provide an overview of the period that is its focus and to answer the query regarding as to why the Golden Age was so stellar in its nature. To this end, the author does a fine job of explicating as to the role the environment, the industry, the location, the history, and the attributes of the Dutch in this particular time period. So, if one reads this book, expect less on the aesthetic side of things (techniques, colors, emphases) and more on the sociology of painting (the why, the data as to what caused the aforementioned age). And this is all for the best, for the author, even with his limitations of time and space, does a fine job of explaining 'why' the Dutch, during this period, 'shined' so well. For instance, he announces that while during the Italian Renaissance there were approximately 1 artist for every 10,000 Italians, during the Dutch "Golden Age" there was 1 artist every 2 or three thousand residents. No wonder why there was such a plethora of Art! Facts like these, smoothly presented and persuasively articulated, are scattered throughout the tome, adding immeasurably to the reader's edification and joy. Read this book if one desires an acquaintance with the history and society that created the Dutch Golden Age; read this book if one wants to gain credence in the world of Art; read it if one wants to become 'greater' in the whys and wherefores of Art appreciation! A good book this is!
October 1, 2020
This book does include a lot of important information (I really enjoyed the author’s discussion about why landscape paintings became so popular in the mid to late 1600s), but the writing is so, sooo dry.
November 7, 2024
Kitap sayesinde Hollanda tarihi hakkında az çok bilgi sahibi oluyorsunuz. Kitaptaki verileri gerçeklere dayandırmak için çok ama çok sayısal data kullanılmış. Yeri geldi sıkıldım, yeri geldi ilgiyle okudum.
January 27, 2017
Read this for one of my history classes. Absolutely love art and loved seeing names of painters and pictures of paintings I knew.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews