The Annotated Mona Lisa: Pages 52 - 55

Question 1

Dutch Baroque

Answer 1

• Flanders: dominated by the monarchy and the Catholic Church
• Holland: independent, democratic, protestant country
• religious art forbidden
• middle class collected art
• art flourished from 1610-1670

Question 2

Still Life

Answer 2

• painting genre began in the post-Reformation Netherlands

- peak was 17th century

Question 3

Landscape

Answer 3

• nature was treated realistically and often set against towering clouds in a great sky

Question 4

Ruisdael: “Big Sky” Paintings

Answer 4

• Ruisdael (1629-82)
• emphasized great open stretches of sky, water, and fields and used dramatic contrasts of light and shadow and threatening clouds to infuse his work with melancholy

Question 5

Hals: Master of the Moment

Answer 5

• Frans Hals (1580-1666)
• captured a fleeting expression
• most famous painting, “The Laughing Cavalier”
• used the alla prima technique

Question 6

Rembrandt: The World Famous

Answer 6

• Rembrandt van Rijn (1606-69)
• best known painter in the Western World
• early style portraits were the height of fashion
• in later years, his art became more psychological then physical
• considered to be most accomplished etcher ever
• technique evolved from attention to minute detail to large-scale subjects given form through broad, thick smudges of paint