03 / 10 · 1600–1720
A shaft of light in the darkness, and a dramatic instant that moves the viewer.
The Night Watch · Read more →Seventeenth-century Europe was torn by religious war and plague. The Catholic Church, leading the Counter-Reformation, wanted art that would speak directly to the emotions of the faithful. Caravaggio's fierce brought biblical stories onto the streets of Rome and shocked his contemporaries.
Meanwhile the Protestant Dutch Republic became a commercial powerhouse. Without large church commissions, painters worked for citizens instead, producing portraits, genre scenes and still lifes; Rembrandt and Vermeer made this the Dutch Golden Age.
