In class on Tuesday we first covered Baroque Art in France and Holland and then moved North to look at the work produced in the Dutch Republic (The Netherlands). We first considered some background factors that would have been influencing the works produced, such as the Reformation which led to a split in the Netherlands between North and South (Protestant and Catholicism, respectively). We spent a chunk of time talking about the work of Rubens, whose works captured essential Baroque themes such as instantaneous movement and powerful diagonal lines. In our transition to Northern artists, we looked at the works of Frans Hals, including his lively group portrait Banquet of the Officers of the St. George Civic Guard. This work strayed from previous group portraits in that it achieved in making every figure visible, while also creating a composition that was not boring. Like Rubens, Hals also used strong diagonal lines. After Hals, we looked at Rembrandt, who was prolific with his painting of self-portraits. At the end of class, we shifted to the “Little Masters” and the emerging trend of specialization.