HA 706 / 940

Seventeenth-century Dutch art and culture were profoundly impacted by global trade and travel. Established in 1602, the Dutch East India Company gleaned enormous profits from its trade in Asian goods, including its monopoly on spice imports. Established in 1621, the Dutch West India Company traded with, and colonized areas in, the Americas and the Caribbean. On a large scale, the company participated in  the transatlantic trade in slaves, who labored on plantations in the Caribbean and Brazil. 

Paintings and prints by numerous Dutch artists, and in a range of subjects (genre scenes, landscapes, still lifes, portraits, etc.), picture significant aspects of the companies’  enterprises in foreign trade and travel. This seminar will examine such images and consider the diverse and profound ways in which Dutch art engaged with the perceived bounty of global commerce, while ignoring its dark and disturbing circumstances.