Art Historian Dr Matthew Whyte offers a new lecture series, which takes the audience on an art-filled journey through the often beautiful, sometimes scandalous, and always fascinating moments in the development of Western civilisation. See series info »

Week 2: The Dutch Golden Age

While the heightened spiritual urgency of the Counter-Reformation church dominated the arts in Italy, an entirely distinct visual revolution was taking place north of the Alps. In the new Protestant context, the need for religious imagery had all but vanished in the wake of the Reformation. For the first time since Late Antiquity, religious subjects no longer dominated art’s raison d’être. Face with this, artists such as Jan Steen, Franz Hals, Rembrandt van Rijn, Johannes Vermeer, and many others, famously sought new subjects by appealing to the wishes of a new market. The religious altarpiece was supplanted by new subjects – landscape, still life, scenes of everyday life, and a reimagined approach to portraiture. Still loaded with symbols and hidden meanings, these new subjects capture a fascinating reflection of life in the Dutch Golden Age.

1. Tues 18 March
The Baroque in Italy: Sacred & Profane

2. Tues 25 March
The Dutch Golden Age

3. Tues 1 April
Envisioning Status: Baroque Spain & France

4. Tues 8 April
The Art of the Enlightenment

5. Tues 15 April
Romanticism & the Triumph of Spirit

6. Tues 22 April
Canova in Cork: Our Collection & Artists in the 19th Century