The Golden Age of the Dutch

The dutch built a society of great prosperity, religious toleration and artistic endeavor that have the collective jaws of other european nations knocking gently on their tow caps. This was an extraordinary period for all those dutch paintings we love so much. France, ales, rembrandt, vermere, any number of others, patrons eagerly commissioned for their own houses as well as public spaces. It's been suggested that at least three million paintings were produced in the seventeenth century alone.