Art and Allegiance in the Dutch Golden Age: The Ambitions of a Wealthy Widow in a Painted Chamber by Ferdinand Bol

In the 1660s, Ferdinand Bol, one of Rembrandt’s most famous students, painted a set of five wall-sized canvases for a wealthy Calvinist widow from Utrecht. His patron chose the themes of each painting, so that each piece reflected her own political and religious convictions. Thus Bol’s work is a powerful tool for both the art and cultural historian, providing insight into the historical milieu of the seventeenth-century Netherlands. Margriet van Eikema Hommes brings this exceptional commission to life using the recent restoration of canvases to perform a “forensic” investigation, and integrating archival research, new scientific techniques for identification, and iconological analysis.