De Gouden Eeuw

he Golden Age was a period of prosperity in the 17th Century when painting, business and science flourished. The Dutch Republic, consisting of seven provinces, taking up a large part of what is now The Netherlands, was among the most affluent states in Europe. Until then farmers were self-sufficient, but now they started to grow larger crops so that they could sell the surplus and they started specializing in a few products. This resulted in a trade increase, because the crops the farmers did not grow on their own land had to be bought. Furthermore, voyages of discovery had raised an interest in different, unfamiliar products such as pepper and people from other countries also showed their interest. All this caused Amsterdam to become a major trading port.

A few famous names from the world of science of those days:
* Hugo de Groot, scholar in the field of international jurisprudence. He studied ways of concluding peace treaties.
* Constantijn Huygens. One of his achievements was discovering the ring around planet Saturn. 17th Century
Dutch painting gained world fame and painters like Rembrandt van Rijn (Night Watch) and Jan Steen and his chaotic domestic scenes are appreciated all over the world.
Something that was quite new in those days was that ordering paintings was no longer restricted to the Church. Since the Republic was Protestant, images were no longer allowed in the churches and paintings were mainly ordered by rich citizens. Paintings no longer needed to point a morality and painters considered themselves craftsmen rather than artists.