
Type : Appel à communication
Date limite de l’appel : 1er octobre 2017
Date de l’événement : 31 mai – 2 juin 2018
Lieu : Genève
The Dutch Golden Age: a new aurea ætas? The revival of a myth in the seventeenth-century Republic
In 1719, the painter Arnold Houbraken voiced his regret about the end of the prosperity that had reigned in the Dutch Republic around the middle of the seventeenth century. He indicates this period as especially favorable to artists and speaks of a ‘golden age for art’
(Gulde Eeuw voor de Konst). But what exactly was Houbraken talking about? The word eeuw is ambiguous: it could refer to the length of a century as well as to an undetermined period, relatively long and historically undefined. In fact, since the sixteenth century, the expression gulde(n) eeuw or goude(n) eeuw referred to two separate realities as they can be distinguished today: the ‘golden century’, that is to say a period that is part of history; and the ‘golden age’, a mythical epoch under the reign of Saturn, during which men and women lived like gods, were loved by them, and enjoyed peace and happiness and harmony with nature. Continuer la lecture de Appel à communication : The Dutch Golden Age (Geneva, 31 May-2 Jun 18)