Louvre Dutch and Flemish Masters

• PHOTOS

For a brief, easily forgotten half-century, from the beginning to the middle of the 1600s, the Netherlands were the most powerful economic and naval power in Europe and one of its most effervescent and productive artistic centers. During the 17th century alone, it is estimated that roughly five million paintings were bought and sold in the Dutch Republic, among these works by some of the greatest names in art, including Rembrandt and Vermeer.

This 3-hour, in-depth walk of the Dutch and Flemish collection of the Louvre aims to evolve the unique artistic phenomenon of the Dutch "Golden Age" by examining it in the much larger context of what is broadly termed the "Northern School," an idea that goes back as far as the 1400s. Through the work of artists such as Jan van Eyck and Hieronymous Bosch, you and your docent with explore the particularities of the Northern Renaissance and how new painting techniques and social and religious circumstances gave rise to an art full of detail, humor a

For a brief, easily forgotten half-century, from the beginning to the middle of the 1600s, the Netherlands were the most powerful economic and naval power in Europe and one of its most effervescent and productive artistic centers. During the 17th century alone, it is estimated that roughly five million paintings were bought and sold in the Dutch Republic, among these works by some of the greatest names in art, including Rembrandt and Vermeer.

This 3-hour, in-depth walk of the Dutch and Flemish collection of the Louvre aims to evolve the unique artistic phenomenon of the Dutch "Golden Age" by examining it in the much larger context of what is broadly termed the "Northern School," an idea that goes back as far as the 1400s. Through the work of artists such as Jan van Eyck and Hieronymous Bosch, you and your docent with explore the particularities of the Northern Renaissance and how new painting techniques and social and religious circumstances gave rise to an art full of detail, humor and pathos.

Moving on to works from the tumultuous 16th and 17th centuries, you will discuss how Rubens and his students reinvigorated Flemish art and how the Netherlands became artistic laboratories for a new kind of art that used daily life and current events as their catalysts. The Reformation, exploration of the New World, and life sciences were just some of the topics used for artistic fodder. While artists like Frans Hals and Rembrandt reshape portrait painting and van Ruisdael reinvents the landscape, other painters, such as Vermeer and Pieter de Hooch use their works to comment on the morals (or lack thereof) of the new Dutch society.

This walk, which offers an excellent counterpoint to the Italian and French collections of the Louvre, provides the opportunity to rediscover a school of painting that is often overlooked and which brings "low"subjects to high art.