Freedom, power and splendor

The exhibition Freedom, Power and Splendor. Dutch art in the 17th century took place from June 21 to August 23, 2009 in the Von der Heydt Museum in Wuppertal .

The exhibition

The exhibition opened on the morning of June 21, 2009 as part of a vernissage with around 500 invited guests, including diplomatic representatives from the Netherlands . The exhibition featured works of Dutch painting from the Golden Age , including works by Peter Paul Rubens , Cornelis de Vos , Frans Snyders , Jan van Goyen , Jan Davidsz. de Heem , Aert de Gelder , Nicolaes Berchem and others. During the Golden Age, which stretched over the 17th century, the Netherlands experienced an economic and cultural boom, which was particularly evident in painting. At the same time, the country was repeatedly shaken by armed conflicts such as the Eighty Years War and the Dutch War , the Rampjaar and outbreaks of the plague . Religious tensions led to the division of the Spanish Netherlands into the Protestant Republic of the Seven United Provinces in the north and the Catholic remainder in the south. The aim of the exhibition was to show the contrast between wars and times of need on the one hand and times of peace with increasing prosperity and cultural prosperity on the other.

The 155 paintings in the exhibition were divided into ten units, the titles such as “The new national feeling”, “Economy and trade”, “Politics, war, state and society”, “Work, everyday life and pleasure”, “Religion, morality and science ”,“ Tulips and other treasures ”and“ Longing for the other and far away ”. Within these chapters, paintings were presented whose depictions thematized or illustrated the historical events. In addition, they served as examples of image types such as portraits , still lifes or landscape images , the creation or typical characteristics of which they helped to explain. The curator endeavored to present art and social history together for the first time in a large exhibition of Dutch painting.

The exhibition was curated by Nicole Hartje-Grave . An extensive catalog with extensively researched descriptions and color images of all the paintings on display was published by Gerhard Finckh and Hartje-Grave.

Paintings in the exhibition (selection)

title	Artist	Emergence	format	Catalog raisonné	Collection, place
Portrait of Archduke Albrecht VII of Austria	Peter Paul Rubens	1615			Nidwalden Museum , Stans
Portrait of Archduchess Isabella Clara Eugenia	Peter Paul Rubens	1615			Nidwalden Museum, Stans
The pillage of the village of Wommelgem by troops from the rebellious provinces	Sebastian Vrancx	1615-1620			Museum Kunstpalast , Düsseldorf
Portrait of a Dutch family	Thomas de Keyser	around 1624	59 × 71 cm		Ducal Museum Gotha
Portrait of Don Fernando, Cardinal-Infanta of Spain	Peter Paul Rubens	1628	117.7 x 84 cm	12	Alte Pinakothek , Munich
Portrait of Gerard Pietersz. Hulft	Govaert Flinck	1654	130 × 103 cm	207	Rijksmuseum Amsterdam
The Nieuwe Kerk in Delft with the magnificent tomb of William of Orange	Emanuel de Witte	around 1655	108 × 91 cm		Art Museum Winterthur - Reinhart am Stadtgarten
The wrong world	Jan Steen	1663	105 x 145.5 cm		Kunsthistorisches Museum , Vienna
Trompe-l'Oeil of an open closet	Cornelis Gijsbrechts	around 1665			SØR Rusche Collection , Oelde / Berlin
Lady with a parrot at the window	Caspar Netscher	1666	45.7 x 36.2 cm		Own collection ( restituted in 2014 , now in the National Gallery of Art , Washington, DC)
The Dam in Amsterdam	Gerrit Adriaensz. Berckheyde	1668	70 × 110 cm		Royal Museum of Fine Arts , Antwerp
Group picture of the de Man family in the pharmacy 'In de Spiegel' at Delft Wijnhaven	Cornelis de Man	circa 1670	90 × 112 cm		National Museum Warsaw
IJ off Amsterdam with the frigate De Ploeg	Ludolf Bakhuizen	circa 1690	68 × 81 cm		Rijksmuseum Amsterdam
Allegory of the prosperity and prosperity of Holland	Nicolaas Verkolje	1700-1702			Privately owned