DUTCH PAINTING OF THE 16TH–19TH CENTURIES IN THE COLLECTION OF THE AZERBAIJAN NATIONAL MUSEUM OF ART

Abstract

Abstract. This article is dedicated to the scholarly study of Dutch painting samples held in the Western Europe collection of the Azerbaijan National Museum of Art. Works from the 16th–19th centuries represent the main genres of the Dutch Golden Age school — portrait, landscape, still life, and genre scene — at a high artistic level. The study examines the origin of the works, genre characteristics, technical and aesthetic parameters, as well as principles of their presentation in museum exhibitions. Through the works of Frans Hals, Pieter Claesz, Adriaen van Ostade, Michiel van Mierevelt, Caspar Netscher, and Juriaan van Streeck, the harmony of light and shadow in Dutch realism, careful attention to detail, the traditions of psychological portraiture, and the artistic depiction of everyday life are analyzed. The museum collection provides important scholarly material for studying the stages of development in Dutch painting, the socio-cultural context of the 17th century, and the features of the European realist school. The study contributes both to expanding Western European research within Azerbaijani art scholarship and to forming a new perspective on Dutch art in Azerbaijan's museum environment.