In this thesis I analyze the Dutch frontispiece to Francois Valentijn?s 1726 book Oud en Nieuw Oost Indien and demonstrate that it is a significant artistic statement, original in its rich and imaginative iconography and emblematic program. I describe and explain the image and its iconographic program and emblematic structure. I compare the frontispiece to many other Dutch frontispieces and artworks that likewise feature the four continent allegories and other iconographic elements. I demonstrate the ways in which the frontispiece superbly and comprehensively summarizes and visualizes the text, which is the primary purpose of frontispieces. I also show how the image emulates early eighteenth-century Dutch culture by reflecting the period?s nostalgia for Golden Age styles and subjects. In conclusion I clarify the way in which the image functions emblematically and explain the twofold meaning of the emblem and proving that the image is exceptional and unique within the context of the historiography of Dutch frontispieces.

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The study departs from a technical examination of the panel painting Polyxena is Sacrificed in the Stockholm University Collection of Art, establishing the artistic process, level of ambition, and material choices by means of multispectral imaging techniques and elemental analysis. The artist, Jacob de Wet I, was both a well-reputed Haarlem-painter who specialized in small scale history paintings and headed a mass-producing workshop which supplied the low-end art markets of Haarlem and Amsterdam. The study places this artwork within the artist’s broad range of production. Further, the social and cultural contexts of the painting are investigated by comparing it to other artist’s versions of the subject, by means of an iconographical analysis of the image, and by examining its prominent theatrical features in relation to Dutch theatre traditions. By combining the technical, social, and cultural findings, the study aims to establish – and to delimit – a specific place in the art market and to suggest a possible type of customer for the painting. Confirming the work’s originality and authenticity, the results show an intuitive, thus likely time-consuming artistic process, a wide palette including expensive pigments – all indicative of a high level of ambition. In combination with the subject matter, these results suggest the painting to be a commissioned work. Further, the image and its social and cultural context, indicate the commissioner to be a person of some formal power within the Amsterdam society, seeking to communicate high erudition and to express liberal political views.  De Wet effectively expresses his message using a combination of painterly effects, including the materiality of the paint.

Hendrick ter Brugghen (1588-1629), a Dutch Baroque painter, is known as one of the more prominent artists among the Utrecht Caravaggisti, so-named for the city in which he worked and as a follower of Caravaggio. The Caravaggesque style swept through Northern Europe during the cusp of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, and genre scenes of half-length figures could be found in every art fair and open market. The label of Utrecht Caravaggisti, however, is a limiting descriptor for ter Brugghen, who created works in response to the changing art market and tastes of a growing Dutch middle class, not motivated solely out of admiration for the Italian painter and his style. Hendrick ter Brugghen’s works featuring musicians at play are prime examples of how an artist in the competitive art market of the northern Netherlands engaged the viewer in a multitude of ways. With the rise of the middle-class merchants, professionals, and city officials, as well as the establishment of music and art academies, the subject of lower class musicians likely would have appealed to a range of buyers. Ter Brugghen’s use of half-length figures find their roots in earlier Dutch and Flemish artists, such as Hieronymus Bosch and Quentin Massys, who preceded Caravaggio in this type of composition by nearly a century, and certainly would have appealed to the market of a newly formed Dutch Republic seeking its own artistic lineage. Ter Brugghen employed allegorical themes and invoked a modern and vernacular variant of the pastoral mode in his string musicians, which would have been instantly recognizable to the learned buyer. In addition to engaging the viewer on a contemplative level, I shall argue that ter Brugghen’s musical compositions also enticed the viewer by activating his innate ideasthetic responses through visual cues and multisensory stimulation. By examining ter Brugghen’s musician paintings within the context and history of Dutch art production, we can more fully understand how his works engage the viewer so effectively and how they extend well beyond a dialogue with Caravaggio to assert his own inventiveness and modernity. / Art History

Denna kandidatuppsats undersöker den nederländska kompositören Jacob van Eycks verk Der Fluyten Lust-hof och den variationsstil som används inom verket. Detta skedde genom studier av Ruth van Baak Griffioens avhandling Jacob van Eyck’s Der Fluyten Lust-Hof och Thiemo Winds avhandling Jacob van Eyck and the Others samt egna studier av variationerna inom verket. Detta kulminerade i sju egenskrivna variationer över den svenska psalmen Den blomstertid nu kommer i Jacob van Eycks ikoniska stil. Genom arbetet har jag uppnått en ökad förståelse om van Eycks liv, hans variationsteknik samt en friare interpretation och stilistisk säkerhet vid framtida framförande av hans musik / This essay investigates the Dutch composer Jacob van Eycks work Der Fluyten Lust-hof and the style of diminution which is used within the work. Previous works about Jacob van Eyck, such as Jacob van Eyck’s Der Fluyten Lust-Hof by Ruth van Baak Griffioen and Jacob van Eyck and the others by Thiemo Wind, as well as my own studies of the work are consulted in the studying of van Eycks variation style. This culminated in seven variations of the Swedish psalm Den blomstertid nu kommer written by my own hand in Jacob van Eycks iconic style. Throughout this work I have gained a better understanding about van Eycks life, his diminution technique as well as achieved a freer interpretation and stylistic confidence when preforming van Eycks music. / <p>Alicia Petersson (1998-)</p><p>Variationer i Jacob van Eycks variationsstil över Den blomstertid nu kommer </p><p>Alicia Petersson, blockflöjt</p>