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 Secular Europe Genre painting became popular across Europe as artists looked closely at the world around them. It took special prominence in the Netherlands at the time of independence from Spain in about 1600. Nationalistic feelings and pride in their fledgling state motivated artists to record every aspect of the world around them, producing huge quantities of paintings documenting Dutch life, landscape, and history. A taste for small-scale, realistic, simple, and direct works of art—often with moralistic overtones—arose, and Dutch artists became innovators in secular subjects. Everyday activity, including humorous and anecdotal subjects, was now the subject of art. The Power of Portraiture in Secular Europe Secular works of art were produced in Europe in increasingly large quantities from the 15th to the 18th century. Non-religious subjects such as portraiture, genre painting (scenes of everyday life), landscape, and still life gained popularity. It was a period of self-confidence in humankind as well as a time of marked increase in personal wealth. The booming European trade economy created a merchant middle class eager to assert itself in ways that previously had been limited to the highest level of society. This new class of patrons created visual records of themselves in great numbers. These portraits offer windows into the past, depicting the styles and activities of another time and place. They also offer glimpses into the psychology of the sitter—the moods and desires of individuals hundreds of years ago. The interest in the observation of nature made still life paintings popular. At the close of the 16th century, artists from all over Europe—particularly in the Netherlands and Spain—began producing paintings devoted solely to still life, which had previously existed as a component of a larger composition, a vase of flowers beside a Virgin and Child, for example. The fruit, flowers, or objects represented sometimes also functioned as symbols or emblems with religious or moralistic messages. For more information on our European Collection, please visit our online catalogue.
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