Dutch art experienced a true golden age in the 17th century. Of the several thousand artists active in the territory of the historical Netherlands during the early modern period, an unusually high number can be considered truly significant — a scale hard to compare with any other region or era. The collections of Dutch masters in galleries around the world still astonish us today with their artistic excellence and thematic diversity.
Naturally, only a small selection from the extraordinary wealth of early modern Dutch and Flemish art can be presented from the collection of the Gallery of Fine Arts in Ostrava. However, GVUO preserves several very interesting and representative paintings and prints of this provenance — and the best among them are featured in this exhibition.
Territorially, the exhibition includes works from the historical Netherlands prior to the Dutch Revolt and the country’s division into northern and southern parts — that is, before the signing of the Union of Utrecht in 1579 and the proclamation of the so-called Republic of the Seven United Netherlands in 1581, when the seven northern provinces officially deposed the Spanish Habsburg Philip II and elected William I of Orange as their stadtholder. This context also includes the entire region of Flanders, which had already experienced general prosperity and artistic flourishing during the 16th century. The differences between Flemish — southern — and “Dutch” — northern — artists remained evident in the following age.
Flemish art, under the influence of Catholicism, gravitated toward Italian Baroque with its emphasis on intense dramatization, expressed not only in grand formats but especially in allegorical themes returning to classical mythology. By contrast, in the Protestant northern provinces, the church played only a marginal role as a patron of the arts, and the newly independent nation proudly developed its own distinctive culture shaped by a Calvinist worldview, which naturally reflected in the arts as well. The Calvinist doctrine of predestination interpreted earthly economic prosperity as a sign of one’s salvation and divine favor. As a result, wealthy burghers and cities, as art commissioners, proudly displayed their prosperity and success. This inclination toward the material world, delight in tangible objects, and the openness of private interiors to the public eye are all hallmarks of the “Dutch” mentality — which is reflected in the themes of many artworks, including genre scenes, still lifes, landscapes, allegorical depictions of carnival masquerades, as well as urban and military scenes from the Thirty Years’ War.

Translated with the help of GPT chat.

Curators: Jiří Jůza, Gabriela Pelikánová, Renata Skřebská 
Graphic design: Josef Mladějovský 
Realisation: Jiří Jůza, Jan Kudrna, Renata Skřebská 
Promotion: Kateřina Naarová, Jana Šrubařová 
Educational programmes: Marcela Pelikánová, Jana Sedláková