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Flemish Renaissance and Dutch Golden Age at the Louvre with Marie Dessaillen
Flemish Renaissance and Dutch Golden Age at the Louvre with Marie Dessaillen

Flemish Renaissance and Dutch Golden Age at the Louvre with Marie Dessaillen


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Can't make this time? A video recording will be sent to all participants after the seminar.

From the 1400s to the 1600s, Flemish and Dutch Art became a strong concurrence to Italian art. This conversation will study its evolution from Jan Van Eyck and the "Flemish Primitives" to the birth of the landscape during the Renaissance, to the Golden Age of Rubens, Rembrandt, and Vermeer.

While Italy was prospering and its art was moving towards modernity, the North of Europe was falling behind, struck by the plague, the Hundred Years' War, and falling demography. It was a different story in Flanders. From the moment the region came into the possession of the Dukes of Burgundy in the 1380s, Flanders thrived with creativity, strongly influencing its neighbors. It was one of the most prosperous regions in Europe; its strong harbors and cities helped the rise of a middle class of burghers who became new art commissioners.

We’ll learn how it is in this environment that Jan Van Eyck developed the technique of oil painting that revolutionized the art of painting: a new form of realism, a change in the representation of the light, a liking for the details. Rogier Van der Weyden and Hans Memling followed suit, creating transportable altarpieces for the traveling merchants that made the Italian artists turn green from jealousy. In such an educated region, Humanism and the Reform touched the Flanders greatly, unfortunately bringing the country to civil war and (fortunately) Bosch's and Brueghel's views of Hell and the Folly of Man. We’ll discuss the split into two countries, the Spanish Netherlands (Belgium) and the independent United Provinces (the Netherlands), and how it led to two artistic styles in the seventeenth-century: the catholic, counter-Reformation art of the Flanders. On one hand, we will see large paintings that were meant for churches and aristocratic houses (Rubens, Van Dyck, Jordaens), and on the other, we will analyze the protestant Dutch Art, full of small formats for burghers homes, on subjects such as the everyday life, still lives, landscapes and portraits (Rembrandt, Frans Hals, Ruisdael, Vermeer).

Led by art historian Marie Dessaillen, this interactive discussion will use the very rich collections of the Louvre museum to explain the evolution of art in that region, showing the links between religion, politics, and economy in the transformations of styles and needs for art. Designed to inform curiosity as well as future travels, participants will come away with an increased understanding of art in the Flemish and Dutch provinces from 1400 to 1700.

This is the second of a series of four seminars on the Louvre collections, each independent, designed to describe in-depth the main movements of European Art History. After the Italian and Flemish Renaissance, Marie Dessaillen will focus on the largest collection of French Art in the world in two parts: the Medieval and Renaissance French Art, followed by the period when Paris ruled the artistic world: from Classism to Romanticism. It will be an occasion to place all your favorite artists back into a chronology and make sense of their evolution. From Giotto to Michelangelo, from Van Eyck to Vermeer, from the medieval anonymity of the artisan to Delacroix, let's make sense of European Art History!

The daughter of a sculptor, Marie has been surrounded by art ever since she was born. A native Parisienne, she holds an undergraduate degree in history and art history, with a specialty in iconography and French and Flemish paintings from the 16th to the 18th centuries. She also holds a Master's degree in museology from the Ecole du Louvre and one in Art History from the Sorbonne.

This conversation is suitable for all ages.

90 minutes, including a 30 minute Q&A.

Customer Reviews

Based on 24 reviews
88%
(21)
13%
(3)
0%
(0)
0%
(0)
0%
(0)
M
Michael Z. (Fairfax, US)
Superb

This is an outstanding presentation. Ms. Dessaillen displayed deep knowledge about the paintings delivered in a warm, engaging style. I liked how she went into great detail about the composition and significance of the paintings. I plan to attend more of her presentations.

m
m.b. (Chevy Chase, US)
A wonderful talk!

Marie always gives such excellent talks and I learn a great deal fro them. She packs a great deal of info into a short space of time, and has a great sense of how to present complex ideas via discussion, and illustration.

M
Marty H (Brooklyn, US)
Flemish Favs

Excellent. Thoroughly enjoyed and learned some new historical and technique details. Looking forward to more webinars with Marie Desaillien.

J
J.C. (Edison, US)
Brain Overload

As usual, a Context lecture does not disappoint – for the most part. Marie Dessaillen’s grasp of her material amazes. For anyone who wants a basic understanding of art produced during the Flemish Renaissance and the Dutch Golden Age this is an essential discussion. My only criticism, and so the title of this review, is that the period chosen covers too many years, too many movements, and too many artists. The cup runneth over.

A
A.R. (Austin, US)
Dutch golden age

Speaker did an excellent job of combining artworks, historical events and geography.

Customer Reviews

Based on 24 reviews
88%
(21)
13%
(3)
0%
(0)
0%
(0)
0%
(0)
M
Michael Z. (Fairfax, US)
Superb

This is an outstanding presentation. Ms. Dessaillen displayed deep knowledge about the paintings delivered in a warm, engaging style. I liked how she went into great detail about the composition and significance of the paintings. I plan to attend more of her presentations.

m
m.b. (Chevy Chase, US)
A wonderful talk!

Marie always gives such excellent talks and I learn a great deal fro them. She packs a great deal of info into a short space of time, and has a great sense of how to present complex ideas via discussion, and illustration.

M
Marty H (Brooklyn, US)
Flemish Favs

Excellent. Thoroughly enjoyed and learned some new historical and technique details. Looking forward to more webinars with Marie Desaillien.

J
J.C. (Edison, US)
Brain Overload

As usual, a Context lecture does not disappoint – for the most part. Marie Dessaillen’s grasp of her material amazes. For anyone who wants a basic understanding of art produced during the Flemish Renaissance and the Dutch Golden Age this is an essential discussion. My only criticism, and so the title of this review, is that the period chosen covers too many years, too many movements, and too many artists. The cup runneth over.

A
A.R. (Austin, US)
Dutch golden age

Speaker did an excellent job of combining artworks, historical events and geography.