Rarities of These Lands
Author | : Claudia Swan |
Publisher | : Princeton University Press |
Total Pages | : 336 |
Release | : 2021-03-09 |
ISBN-10 | : 9780691207964 |
ISBN-13 | : 0691207968 |
Rating | : 4/5 (64 Downloads) |
Book excerpt: "The early years of the seventeenth century saw a great flourishing of Dutch culture. In the arts, this was the era of Vermeer and Rembrandt, as well as the development of a local art market. Commerce extended around the world, with state-sponsored trading companies importing foreign goods. Politically, the Netherlands became the first nation-state in Europe, in 1648. In this book, Claudia Swan considers all these aspects together, examining the material culture of the period-the designed, manufactured, and hand-crafted materials and wares-to show how the Dutch encounter with so-called "exotic" goods played a fundamental role in the country's political formation"--