The Dutch and Flemish Collections

Dutch and Flemish artists were celebrated for their command of detail and faithful depiction of nature. Often this was combined with a keen sense of human folly as in Marinus van Reymerswaele's The Lawyer's Office, which refers to an actual lawsuit filed in 1526. The documents of this court case are recorded with amazing precision on the background wall. In this vein of realism is the Serpents and Insects by Ottho Marseus van Schrieck who practiced an odd branch of the still-life tradition so highly developed by Netherlandish painters. He raised the reptiles and rare insects himself in a vivarium, and copied them from life. Though the Italian Renaissance was unfolding far away, a significant number of Northern artists made the voyage across the Alps. They returned home profoundly impressed by their encounter with Michelangelo and the classical heritage, as can be seen in Maerten van Heemskerk's Apollo and the Muses.