This course challenges students to think about issues of gender and sexuality in painting. Its focus is Amsterdam in the Golden Age, a particularly fascinating episode in the social and art historical history of the Netherlands. The course offers an overview of art, gender, and sexuality in 17th century Amsterdam. At the same time, the students learn how to look at representations of gender and sexuality in the work of Rembrandt and his contemporaries. The intensive fields trips to art museums and historical sites expand on materials discussed in the lectures, while students learn how to look at and think about the visual arts made in Amsterdam.
Additional student cost:
You will be able to use your Museum card for the visits to most museums. At least one of the field trips takes us outside of Amsterdam. You will therefore incur some additional travel expenses (train, tram or bus) and possibly also a second day pass to the Netherlands Institute for Art History (RKD, the first day is free of charge).
Learning outcomes:
By the end of the course, the student will:
Be acquainted with the social, political, and economic characteristics of seventeenth-century Amsterdam.
Recognize and identify the art of main Amsterdam figure painters, such as Rembrandt, Govaert Flinck, Ferdinand Bol, Pieter de Hooch, and Gabriel Metsu.
Display a thorough understanding of the gendered dynamics at play in Amsterdam art of the Golden Age.
Analyze and discuss visual works of arts.
Set up, execute, and present research on the visual arts.
Demonstrate confidence in public speaking through student presentation.
Display confidence in articulating thoughts and opinions through group discussions.
Gain insight into the collections of the museums and historic sites that are visited during the term.
Method of presentation:
Lectures are used to introduce students to new subjects in the fields of art history, gender studies, and sociology. The field trips are organized in such a way that students learn about their immediate environment, while acquiring new skills, such as looking at art and thinking about historic sites. Students are expected to engage in discussions, make small assignments, and present on works of art during these meetings on site. The group discussions actively engage students with the materials and help to process new concepts and information.
Required work and form of assessment:
Class participation: 10%
Midterm exam: 20%
Oral research report: 15%
Research progress report & final paper: 25%
Final exam: 30%
There is a mid-term (multiple choice and short essay questions) and a final exam (three essay questions). Over the course of six weeks students also conduct independent research on subjects closely related to the professor’s research, such the depiction of the male and female nude and the relation between honor, love, and gender, as visualized in the arts. The final paper should not exceed ten pages. Students keep a progress report (blog) of their research and orally present their results during the final class. Class participation is based on attendance, an unannounced pop quiz during one of the lectures, and participation during field trips and group discussions.
content:
Session 1: Introduction to 17th Century Amsterdam
This lecture focuses on the rise of Amsterdam as the economic and artistic center of seventeenth-century Europe. A wide range of subjects will be covered, including the city’s canals, global trade, and local politics. The second part of this lecture focuses on gender issues by comparing the private and public life of men and women and discussing their relationships.
Reading:
Prak 2001, pp. 7-12, 99-166, 221-273
In addition, students should visit the Amsterdam Museum before the first lecture.
Session 2: Introduction to Art in 17th Century Amsterdam
This class gives a chronological overview of artists working in Amsterdam during the long Golden Age (1585-1718). Special attention is given to Rembrandt and his studio. Emphasis lies on genre painting and Biblical, mythological, and other history scenes, works of art in which gender issues are often at play.
Reading:
Bok 2001, pp. 186-209
Haak 1984, pp. 173-6, 187-203, 273-309, 352-76, 462-98
Westermann 1996, pp. 7-180
Session 3: Field Study Trip: Rijksmuseum Amsterdam
The collection of the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam is used for an introduction on looking at art. The professor discusses how an art historian explains the significance of firsthand examinations of a painting’s conservation, technique, and style. Students experiment with these skills by preparing a brief presentation on a work of art.
Session 4: Gender and Sexuality in Art
This class explores gendered issues at play in Amsterdam painting of the Golden Age. We look at nudes by Rembrandt, mythological love stories of Ferdinand Bol, Govaert Flinck, and their contemporaries, and the private interiors of Gabriel Metsu and Pieter de Hooch.
Reading:
De Jongh 2000, pp. 22-58
Franits 1993, introduction
Honig 2001, pp. 294-315
Honig 1997, pp. 187-201
Salomon 2004, pp. 1-12, 43-76
Session 5: Midterm and Research at the Netherlands Institute for Art History (RKD)
Students take the midterm during regular hours, but a special day is also planned to conduct research at the Netherlands Institute for Art History (RKD), one of the most important art-historical information centers in the world. They are advised to spend the remainder of the day taking advantage of its collection and working on their research paper. The professor is present the entire day to answer questions and discuss research individually.
Reading:
‘How to do things with pictures’, pp. 5-41
Familiarize yourself with the RKD website and its databases (www.rkd.nl).
Session 6: A City Tour: Gender and Sexuality in 17th Century Amsterdam
The professor guides students through the city center, identifying original seventeenth-century structures. Along the way, the tour identifies historic sites related to the themes of gender and sexuality, such as the court (the Town hall), correction facilities, churches, and reconstructions of private homes. In preparation for this interactive tour, students read seventeenth-century tourist guides and descriptions of Amsterdam.
Reading: A collection of seventeenth-century descriptions of Amsterdam, compiled by the professor.
Session 7: Group Discussion
This class consists of two parts. During the first half, students engage in scholarly discourse on the meaning of Rembrandt’s Bathsheba. The discussion is based on articles expressing opposing ideas about questions of meaning. During the second half of this class, groups of students present discussion topics of their own choosing and lead the group discussion that follows.
Reading:
Westermann 2002, pp. 351-72
Introduction and essays by Sluijter, Bal, and Alpers, in: Adams 1998, pp. 1-26, 48-99, 119-146, 147-158
Session 8: Academies of Art and the Nude
Since Rembrandt’s Danae of 1636, the female nude reemerged on the Amsterdam art market. Its rise coincided with the emergence of afterlife drawing sessions in which prostitutes were hired as female models. The nudes by Rembrandt, Bartholomeus van de Helst, Jan Lievens, Willem Drost, Jacob van Loo, and many others are discussed in terms of meaning, nudity and sexuality, and the academic practice that preceded their creation.
Reading:
Sluijter 2006, pp. 311-331
Van de Pol 2011, pp. 11-67 (introduction and chapters 1 and 2)
Salomon 2004, pp. 77-92
Session 9: Field Study Trip: Rembrandt’s House and the Rijksprentenkabinet
The goal of this field trip is to improve our understanding of the sexual connotations of drawing nude models or viewing depictions of them. We visit a nude modeling class in Rembrandt’s studio, as well as the Rijksprentenkabinet, where students are invited to hold and view seventeenth-century works on paper, including male and female nudes.
Reading:
Clark 1956, pp. 3-29
Nead 1992, chapter one
Session 10: Empathy and Issues of Gender and Sexuality
The experiences of the last field trip are related to scholarly writing on issues of gender, sexuality, and nudity in the visual arts. Students are encouraged to develop their own opinions and relate them to the current state of scholarship.
Reading:
Freedberg 1989, pp. 317-344
Session 11: Presentations
The students present the results of their research, using a Power Point presentation (or other suitable medium). Students are encouraged to respond to the presentations of their fellow students. The class takes place in one of the University’s historic rooms.
Session 12: Final Exam
Required readings:
Jensen Adams (ed.), Rembrandt’s Bathsheba reading king David’s letter, Cambridge/ New York 1998
M.J. Bok, ‘The Rise of Amsterdam as a Cultural Centre: the Market for Paintings, 1580-1680’, in: O’Brian (ed.), Urban achievement in early modern Europe. Golden Ages in Antwerp, Amsterdam and London, Cambridge 2001, pp. 186-209
K. Clark, The nude: a study in ideal form, New York 1956
Wayne Franits, Paragons of Virtue: Women and Domesticity in Seventeenth-Century Dutch Art, Cambridge 1993
D. Freedberg, The power of images. Studies in the history and theory of response, Chicago/ London 1989
Bob Haak, The Golden Age: Dutch painters of the seventeenth-century, Zwolle 2003
Elizabeth Honig, ‘Desire and Domestic Economy,’ Art Bulletin 83:2 (2001), pp. 294-315
Elizabeth Honig, ‘The Space of Gender in 17th-Century Dutch Painting,’ in Wayne Franits (ed.), Looking at Dutch Art, Cambridge 1997, pp. 187-201
Eddy de Jongh, ‘A Birds-eye view of erotica: double entendre in a series of seventeenth-century genre scenes’, in: Eddy de Jongh, Questions of Meaning: Theme and Motif in Dutch Seventeenth-Century Painting, Leiden 2000, pp. 22-58
L. Nead, The female nude. Art, obscenity, and sexuality, London/New York 1992
Lotte van de Pol, The burgher and the whore. Prostitution in early modern Amsterdam, Oxford/Amsterdam 2011
Maarten Prak, The Dutch Republic in the Seventeenth Century: The Golden Age, Cambridge 2005
Salomon, Nanette, Shifting Priorities: Gender and Genre in Seventeenth-Century Dutch Painting, Stanford 2004
Eric Jan Sluijter, Rembrandt and the Female Nude, Amsterdam 2006
Amy Tucker, Visual literacy. Writing about art, New York 2002
Mariët Westermann, ‘After Iconography and Iconoclasm: Current Research in Netherlandish Art, 1566-1700’, Art Bulletin 84 (2002), pp. 351-72.
Mariët Westermann, A Worldly Art: The Dutch Republic, 1585-1718, New York 1996
How to do things with pictures. A guide to writing in art history, Department of History of Art and Architecture, Harvard University 2008
Recommended readings:
Jonathan Israel, The Dutch Republic: Its Rise, Greatness and Fall, 1477-1806. Oxford 1995
Geert Mak, A Brief Amsterdam, A Brief Life of The City, London: Harvill Press 1999
Michael North, , Art and Commerce in the Dutch Golden Age, translated by Catherine Hill, New Haven: Yale University Press, 1997
Simon Schama, The Embarrassment of Riches: An interpretation of Dutch culture in the Golden Age, Randon House, 1987
Seymour Slive and Jacob Rosenberg, Dutch Painting 1600-1800, New Haven: Yale UP, 1995
Brief Biography of Instructor:
Judith F.J. Noorman earned her Ph.D. in Art History from New York University. She is currently adjunct professor of Art History at the University of Amsterdam, where she has taught seminars and lectures since 2009. Her research focuses on Dutch seventeenth-century art and often takes an interdisciplinary approach. Her work on Jacob van Loo (1614-70) also covered discussions on a wide range of themes, including academic practice, gender and sexuality, and related subjects such as violence, honor, and the law. Among her more recent publications are articles on ‘Dutch artists in seventeenth-century Paris’ (2013) and ‘Adriaen van de Velde’s academic drawings’ (2012).
Art, Gender And Sexuality In Seventeenth Century Amsterdam
This course challenges students to think about issues of gender and sexuality in painting. Its focus is Amsterdam in the Golden Age, a particularly fascinating episode in the social and art historical history of the Netherlands. The course offers an overview of art, gender, and sexuality in 17th century Amsterdam. At the same time, the students learn how to look at representations of gender and sexuality in the work of Rembrandt and his contemporaries. The intensive fields trips to art museums and historical sites expand on materials discussed in the lectures, while students learn how to look at and think about the visual arts made in Amsterdam.
You will be able to use your Museum card for the visits to most museums. At least one of the field trips takes us outside of Amsterdam. You will therefore incur some additional travel expenses (train, tram or bus) and possibly also a second day pass to the Netherlands Institute for Art History (RKD, the first day is free of charge).
By the end of the course, the student will:
Lectures are used to introduce students to new subjects in the fields of art history, gender studies, and sociology. The field trips are organized in such a way that students learn about their immediate environment, while acquiring new skills, such as looking at art and thinking about historic sites. Students are expected to engage in discussions, make small assignments, and present on works of art during these meetings on site. The group discussions actively engage students with the materials and help to process new concepts and information.
Class participation: 10%
Midterm exam: 20%
Oral research report: 15%
Research progress report & final paper: 25%
Final exam: 30%
There is a mid-term (multiple choice and short essay questions) and a final exam (three essay questions). Over the course of six weeks students also conduct independent research on subjects closely related to the professor’s research, such the depiction of the male and female nude and the relation between honor, love, and gender, as visualized in the arts. The final paper should not exceed ten pages. Students keep a progress report (blog) of their research and orally present their results during the final class. Class participation is based on attendance, an unannounced pop quiz during one of the lectures, and participation during field trips and group discussions.
Session 1: Introduction to 17th Century Amsterdam
This lecture focuses on the rise of Amsterdam as the economic and artistic center of seventeenth-century Europe. A wide range of subjects will be covered, including the city’s canals, global trade, and local politics. The second part of this lecture focuses on gender issues by comparing the private and public life of men and women and discussing their relationships.
Reading:
In addition, students should visit the Amsterdam Museum before the first lecture.
Session 2: Introduction to Art in 17th Century Amsterdam
This class gives a chronological overview of artists working in Amsterdam during the long Golden Age (1585-1718). Special attention is given to Rembrandt and his studio. Emphasis lies on genre painting and Biblical, mythological, and other history scenes, works of art in which gender issues are often at play.
Reading:
Session 3: Field Study Trip: Rijksmuseum Amsterdam
The collection of the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam is used for an introduction on looking at art. The professor discusses how an art historian explains the significance of firsthand examinations of a painting’s conservation, technique, and style. Students experiment with these skills by preparing a brief presentation on a work of art.
Reading:
Session 4: Gender and Sexuality in Art
This class explores gendered issues at play in Amsterdam painting of the Golden Age. We look at nudes by Rembrandt, mythological love stories of Ferdinand Bol, Govaert Flinck, and their contemporaries, and the private interiors of Gabriel Metsu and Pieter de Hooch.
Reading:
Session 5: Midterm and Research at the Netherlands Institute for Art History (RKD)
Students take the midterm during regular hours, but a special day is also planned to conduct research at the Netherlands Institute for Art History (RKD), one of the most important art-historical information centers in the world. They are advised to spend the remainder of the day taking advantage of its collection and working on their research paper. The professor is present the entire day to answer questions and discuss research individually.
Reading:
Session 6: A City Tour: Gender and Sexuality in 17th Century Amsterdam
The professor guides students through the city center, identifying original seventeenth-century structures. Along the way, the tour identifies historic sites related to the themes of gender and sexuality, such as the court (the Town hall), correction facilities, churches, and reconstructions of private homes. In preparation for this interactive tour, students read seventeenth-century tourist guides and descriptions of Amsterdam.
Reading: A collection of seventeenth-century descriptions of Amsterdam, compiled by the professor.
Session 7: Group Discussion
This class consists of two parts. During the first half, students engage in scholarly discourse on the meaning of Rembrandt’s Bathsheba. The discussion is based on articles expressing opposing ideas about questions of meaning. During the second half of this class, groups of students present discussion topics of their own choosing and lead the group discussion that follows.
Reading:
Session 8: Academies of Art and the Nude
Since Rembrandt’s Danae of 1636, the female nude reemerged on the Amsterdam art market. Its rise coincided with the emergence of afterlife drawing sessions in which prostitutes were hired as female models. The nudes by Rembrandt, Bartholomeus van de Helst, Jan Lievens, Willem Drost, Jacob van Loo, and many others are discussed in terms of meaning, nudity and sexuality, and the academic practice that preceded their creation.
Reading:
Session 9: Field Study Trip: Rembrandt’s House and the Rijksprentenkabinet
The goal of this field trip is to improve our understanding of the sexual connotations of drawing nude models or viewing depictions of them. We visit a nude modeling class in Rembrandt’s studio, as well as the Rijksprentenkabinet, where students are invited to hold and view seventeenth-century works on paper, including male and female nudes.
Reading:
Session 10: Empathy and Issues of Gender and Sexuality
The experiences of the last field trip are related to scholarly writing on issues of gender, sexuality, and nudity in the visual arts. Students are encouraged to develop their own opinions and relate them to the current state of scholarship.
Reading:
Session 11: Presentations
The students present the results of their research, using a Power Point presentation (or other suitable medium). Students are encouraged to respond to the presentations of their fellow students. The class takes place in one of the University’s historic rooms.
Session 12: Final Exam
Judith F.J. Noorman earned her Ph.D. in Art History from New York University. She is currently adjunct professor of Art History at the University of Amsterdam, where she has taught seminars and lectures since 2009. Her research focuses on Dutch seventeenth-century art and often takes an interdisciplinary approach. Her work on Jacob van Loo (1614-70) also covered discussions on a wide range of themes, including academic practice, gender and sexuality, and related subjects such as violence, honor, and the law. Among her more recent publications are articles on ‘Dutch artists in seventeenth-century Paris’ (2013) and ‘Adriaen van de Velde’s academic drawings’ (2012).