Soldiers at Leisure
The Guardroom Scene in Dutch Genre Painting of the Golden Age
Distributed for Amsterdam University Press
Among the rich varieties of genre painting, long recognized as one of the most characteristic and original contributions of the seventeenth-century Dutch school of painting, is a highly entertaining but often overlooked series depicting rowdy, off-duty mercenaries. This hugely successful genre portrayed soldiers as they played cards, drank, rested, and frolicked with dubious women. Here Jochai Rosen defines the characteristics and development of this formula, setting it against the prevailing art and culture of the time.
For art history students and scholars, this book grants a unique opportunity to trace the development of a fascinating Dutch genre theme, from its humble beginning in 1620s Amsterdam through its ascent to a nineteenth-century cultural phenomenon.
Acknowledgements
Introduction
Chapter 1: The Guardroom Scene in Context
The soldier in early modern Europe
The war in the Low Countries
The soldier in early modern European art
Pieter Bruegel and the Flemish scenes of looting and battle
Chapter 2: The Birth of a Genre Theme
From merry company to guardroom scene
Pieter Codde
The followers of Pieter Codde’s merry company scene
The crystallisation of the guardroom scene
The order to march
Willem Duyster
Pieter Potter
Chapter 3: The Burlesque Guardroom Scene of Utrecht
The brothel in Netherlandish art
The Caravaggisti low-life scene
The martialism of the Caravaggisti
Jacob Duck
Sleep and vigilance
Maerten Stoop
Chapter 4: A Military Theme for the Aware Bourgeois
Pieter Quast and the alienation of the peasant
Benjamin Cuyp
The civic-guard portrait
Caught between genres: Rembrandt’s Nightwatch
Simon Kick and the gentrified guardroom scene
Class awareness and the guardroom scene
Chapter 5: The Guardroom Scene Domesticated
Anthonie Palamedes
Masculinity pacified
Jan Olis
Guardroom scenes by other seventeenth-century Dutch painters
David Teniers the Younger
Chapter 6: The Revival of the Guardroom Scene in the Nineteenth Century
The Low Countries in the eighteenth century
The Low Countries in the nineteenth century
Ernest Meissonier and the guardroom scene in France
Spain
Germany
Italy
Great Britain
Epilogue
Notes
Sources
List of Figures
Photo Credits
Index
Art: European Art
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