Abstract:
Where painting in the Dutch Golden Age has often been defined by its astute observation of the visual world, it has seldom been addressed in terms of its aural qualities. The depiction of sound - from the suggestion of dialogue to music, to silence itself - seems to voice a distinct dichotomy inherent in the minds of this very particular milieu. In the formative years of the Dutch Republic that spans the early to mid-seventeenth century, this prosperous and turbulent society seemed to negotiate a tentative balance between mercantile indulgence and Calvinist frugality in almost every facet of their lived experience. In this arguably ambiguous state between reality and the imagination, the suggestion of sound operates on an almost subconscious level. It voices anxieties concerning transience and eternity, along with a sense of the here and now that is the crucial component of the fleeting nature of the aural world. Across three chapters, I intend to focus upon an array of genres, which encapsulate this effect in extremely varied visual and sonic outcomes. In the depiction of sound, I interpret visual figures as painted actors, breaking the fourth wall and communicating with the directness of soliloquy. Similarly, music is the binding force that ties quieter compositions with merriment and feasting and features as an ambivalent and powerful force at the centre of my argument. Similarly, silence and quietude within the home, church and city offered a purifying refuge from both terror and noise and the profane world and showed an attempt at wiping the historical slate clean. In analysing these painting through this sonic lens, it is possible to gain an understanding of not only its immersive quality but recreate the mindset of a particular community whose existence was characterized by profound national pride and unsaid shame for a past marred by political violence and tragedy.
