Zachariah Huerta

The Dutch Golden Age, circa 1588 – 1672, was a period of immense socioeconomic growth for the Netherlands, introducing a material ideal we still see and feel the effects of today. The Dutch Empire, as it was often referred to, reached from its colonies in South America all the way to Indonesia. Numerous fields of industry such as science and commerce greatly improved, with the Dutch East India Trading Company (The VOC) establishing many of the foundational concepts of modern-day capitalism and corporations. The arts saw one of the biggest periods of change and growth, with several master artists establishing their practice in the Netherlands. Guilds of artists served multiple growing economic classes and several new genres were established and expanded upon. These artists and practices produced several genre paintings depicting the many colonies of the country and consequently of the VOC, exemplifying a few of the distinct ways the Dutch republic interacted with these colonies, aside from their trade and exports. In this paper, I will argue that Dutch art affected the perception of the Dutch colonies by presenting them as exotic and filled with potential commodities. As many in the Dutch republic were already accustomed to purchasing war bonds, the idea of buying into the promise of potential profit was easy to market and sell, both to the public and the government itself. Paintings and sketches of these colonies, its flora and fauna and its peoples, fascinated the Dutch and as such they were eager to buy into them. This “othering” of these colonies through artistic depictions, whether directly or indirectly, were what pacified the general public to the more horrific aspects of colonization and allowed these colonies to flourish. These ideas will be presented through the art of Andries Beeckman, Frans Post, Albert Eckhout, and other Dutch colonial artists whose works popularized and fantasized the Dutch Brazilian and Indonesian colonies. Not only will this show where the idea of capitalistic advertisement began but will also show some of the earliest uses of what we understand as sociopolitical propaganda, that which we are accustomed to today.