Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

This study explores aspects of a creative period in Holland, when sureness of instinct and quality of performance held a safe balance. It analyzes work of the great masters such as Rembrandt and Hals, set in the context of a period of re-establishment in political, religious and social structures.

Reviews provided by Syndetics

CHOICE Review

It is valuable indeed to have this amplification of the section on painting in the "Pelican History of Art" volume Dutch Art and Architecture: 1600-1800, by J. Rosenberg, S. Slive, and E.H. ter Kuile (CH, Apr'67). Expanded are illustrations (from 284 to 432), artists represented, and discussions about historical circumstance, genres of painting, and iconography. Footnotes and bibliography, although selective, are updated. Slive has made revisions throughout to take into account refinements of interpretation; for examples, he analyzes Ruisdael's Jewish Cemetery as a combination of reality and the artist's invention, and he identifies Rembrandt's 1627 Moneychanger as the rich man from the parable (following T"umpel). He includes some recently discovered and lesser-known works by Goltzius and others; and he incorporates new documentation when appropriate, as in his discussion of Saenredam's life and library. The readable and beautifully illustrated text has more depth and breadth in treatment of single artists and themes than the earlier editions, and it demonstrates how the study of Dutch painting has evolved over the last 30 years, from focus on individual artists and their specialties to the better integration of the artists in their social and esthetic contexts. Like the original Pelican volume, this one is an essential reference and serves both the academic and the general reader. Undergraduate; graduate; general. A. Golahny; Lycoming College