Amsterdam Studies in the Dutch Golden Age
About the Book Series
This book series is published in collaboration with the Amsterdam Centre for the Study of the Golden Age, which aims to promote the history and culture of the Dutch Republic during the ‘long’ seventeenth century (c. 1560-1720).
The publications provide insight into the lively diversity and continuing relevance of the Dutch Golden Age. They offer original studies on a wide variety of topics, ranging from Rembrandt to Vondel, from Beeldenstorm (iconoclastic fury) to Ware Vrijheid (True Freedom) and from Batavia to New Amsterdam. Politics, religion, culture, economics, expansion and warfare all come together in the Centre’s interdisciplinary setting.
The series editors are international scholars specialised in seventeenth-century history, art and literature.
Editorial Board:
Frans Blom, University of Amsterdam; Michiel van Groesen, Leiden University; Geert Janssen, University of Amsterdam; Elmer Kolfin, University of Amsterdam; Nelleke Moser, VU University Amsterdam; Emile Schrijver, University of Amsterdam; Thijs Weststeijn, Utrecht University
Rembrandt, Vermeer, and the Gift in Seventeenth-Century Dutch Art
1st Edition
By Michael Zell
December 01, 2025
Rembrandt, Vermeer, and the Gift in Seventeenth-Century Dutch Art offers a new perspective on the art of the Dutch Golden Age by exploring the interaction between the gift's symbolic economy of reciprocity and obligation and the artistic culture of early modern Holland. Gifts of art were pervasive ...
Shopping Spaces and the Urban Landscape in Early Modern Amsterdam, 1550-1850
1st Edition
By Clé Lesger
December 01, 2025
In this study, the appearance and location of shops in Amsterdam during the early modern period is linked to major changes in the urban economy, the size and socio-spatial distribution of its population, and the structure of the urban grid. Not only is there ample attention for the spatial ...
The Lute in the Dutch Golden Age: Musical Culture in the Netherlands ca. 1580-1670
1st Edition
By Jan W. Burgers
December 01, 2025
The lute’s cultural impact throughout the Dutch Golden Age can be compared to that of the piano in the 19th century. It was the universal instrument for solo music-making, as well as in ensembles and to accompany singers, mainly associated with the social elite - the aristocracy and the prosperous ...
The Mass Market for History Paintings in Seventeenth-Century Amsterdam: Production, Distribution, and Consumption
1st Edition
By Angela Jager
December 01, 2025
Millions of paintings were produced in the Dutch Republic. The works that we know and see in museums today constitute only the tip of the iceberg — the top-quality part. But what else was painted? This book explores the low-quality end of the seventeenth-century art market and outlines the ...
The Multilingualism of Constantijn Huygens (1596-1687)
1st Edition
By Christopher Joby
December 01, 2025
Dutch, French, Latin, Greek, Italian, English, Spanish, and German: those are the eight languages in which Dutch Golden Age poet Constantijn Huygens (1596—1687) wrote his poetry and correspondence. He also knew a bit of Hebrew and Portuguese. Examining a wide range of Huygens’s writings“including ...
The Neapolitan Lives and Careers of Netherlandish Immigrant Painters (1575-1655)
1st Edition
By Marije Osnabrugge
December 01, 2025
The seventeenth century was a time of exceptional mobility for Netherlandish artists. This mobility had a profound impact on artistic developments, stimulating innovation and creativity in the Netherlands as well as abroad. Whereas most artists undertook a relatively short study trip, others ...
The Life of Romeyn de Hooghe 1645-1708: Prints, Pamphlets, and Politics in the Dutch Golden Age
1st Edition
By Henk van Nierop
April 17, 2019
Romeyn de Hooghe was the most inventive and prolific etcher of the later Dutch Golden Age. The producer of wide-ranging book illustrations, newsprints, allegories, and satire, he is best known as the chief propaganda artist working for stadtholder and king William III. This study, the first ...
Habsburg Communication in the Dutch Revolt
1st Edition
By Monica Stensland
June 29, 2012
The rebels of the Dutch Revolt, their political thoughts and the media they used to express them, have long been a focus of historical attention. This book, however, focuses on the largely untold story of what the other side, the Habsburg regime and its local supporters, thought about the conflict ...
The Signature Style of Frans Hals: Painting, Subjectivity, and the Market in Early Modernity
1st Edition
By Christopher D.M. Atkins
January 23, 2012
This richly illustrated study is the first consider the manifold functions and meanings of Hals’s distinctive handling of paint. Atkins explores the uniqueness of Hals’s approach to painting and the relationship of his manner to seventeenth-century aesthetics. He also investigates the economic ...
Art and Allegiance in the Dutch Golden Age: The Ambitions of a Wealthy Widow in a Painted Chamber by Ferdinand Bol
1st Edition
By Margriet van Eikema Hommes
January 10, 2012
In the early 1650s Ferdinand Bol produced a series of wall-covering paintings. This 'painted chamber' is a unique example of a branch of the art of painting which was extremely popular in the seventeenth century, although hardly any of it now remains. Bol's ensemble has always been surrounded by ...
Dutch Ships in Tropical Waters: The Development of the Dutch East India Company (VOC) Shipping Network in Asia 1595-1660
1st Edition
By Robert Parthesius
February 11, 2010
The end of the 16th century saw Dutch expansion in Asia, as The Dutch East India Company (the VOC) was fast becoming an Asian power, both political and economic. By 1669, the VOC was the richest private company the world had ever seen. This landmark study looks at perhaps the most important tool in...
Art Market and Connoisseurship: A Closer Look at Paintings by Rembrandt, Rubens and Their Contemporaries
1st Edition
Edited
By Anna Tummers, Koenraad Jonckheere
October 28, 2008
The question whether or not seventeenth century painters such as Rembrandt and Rubens created the paintings which were later sold under their names, has caused many a heated debate. Much is still unknown about the ways in which paintings were produced, assessed, priced, and marketed. For example, ...