Music, Love, and Leisure in the Dutch Golden Age

The music paintings of Johannes Vermeer and his contemporaries reflect a cultural and artistic heritage inextricably linked to music making. Steeped in symbolism, this subset of Dutch genre painting reveals the influence of music on nearly every element of daily life in 17th-century Netherlands, from social classes to gender norms and religion. Betsy Wieseman, Curator of Dutch and Flemish Paintings at the National Gallery, London, will speak about the lasting impact of music paintings from this period and contextualize Vermeer’s music paintings within his larger body of work.