This class will focus on the "Golden Age" of painting in Holland as well as the century stretching from Bruegel through Rubens and van Dyck in Flanders. It will consider a variety of themes about the relation between art and society. This is the period of the rise of pictorial genres, such as landscapes and still-life, in the emerging market for paintings and prints. It is also the moment of the first great ventures in colonization and scientific exploration of the natural world, and art's role (including early atlases of maps and views) in both fields was considerable. Art responded to the turbulent upheavals of the Religious Wars, involving both politics and religion, frequently as a source of visual propaganda for church or crown. We shall consider these issues through the work of leading artists, such as the following: Peter Bruegel, Goltzius, Jan Brueghel, Rubens, van Dyck, Rembrandt, Ruisdael, Vermeer, among others.

No prerequisites, but Art History 102 (or equivalent) strongly recommended.
Evaluations by analytical assigned papers (or term paper alternative) and final examination.