This paper will discuss landscape scenes painted by Dutch artists during the Baroque Era, from the fifteenth to the seventeenth centuries. Special emphasis will be placed upon five painters of the seventeenth century, namely Jacob van Ruisdael, Jan Lievens, Salomon van Ruysdael, Jan van Goyen, and Aert van der Neer. A number of landscape paintings by these artists will be analyzed in detail. Landscapes were a popular subject for painters during the Baroque period. This paper will show that although landscape paintings of the period share many motifs and characteristics in common, the field of landscape painting was broad enough to enable individual artists to express their own unique styles and ideas despite any similarities of subject matter. In fact, individual self-expression in painting was of particular importance to Dutch artists in the seventeenth century. For example, Raffaello Causa has noted that during this time in the Netherlands, "personal experimentation flourished, and the individual artists felt the obligation to achieve an independent manner within the well-defined sphere of a field of specialization" (Causa, 1966, p. 346). Although these artists typically followed a traditional plan in executing their works, they were nonetheless able to express their own identities through their paintings.
Many factors influenced the development of the fine arts in the Netherlands during the period from the fifteenth through the seventeenth centuries. The economic and social conditions of the times were reflected both in individual works of art as well as in the status of art and artists in general. This period was one in which the Dutch greatly expanded their horizons through increased trade on a world-wide scale and the exploration of newly discovered lands. The abundance of wealth to be gained from such ventures led to a heightened prosperity for the Netherlands as a whole, and this increase in national wealth was ac...