Dutch Golden Age Quotes

“I turned back to the canvas, and it occurred to me then that only a woman could have made this image. This was not a painting of temptation, but rather one of harassment and intimidation, a scene that could be taking place right now in nearly anyplace in the world. The painting operated around a schism, it represented two irreconcilable subjective positions: the man, who believed the scene to be one of ardor and seduction, and the woman, who had been plunged into a state of fear and humiliation. That schism, I now realized, was the true inconsistency animating the canvas, and the true object of Leyster's gaze.”
― Katie Kitamura, Intimacies

“If the rivers are not kept clear, the city [Antwerp] will be lost, the soldiers will mutiny, desert, or surrender to the enemy, the rich and reformed will leave, the poor and riffraff will become the most powerful, meanwhile I receive no answer, it seems they have forgotten us entirely.”
― Philips van Marnix van St. Aldegonde