Turmoil and Tranquillity: The Sea Through the Eyes of Dutch and Flemish
Masters, 1550-1700

Conference
Date: 13-14 November 2008
Location: National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, UK

Generously supported by The Netherlands Embassy

This international two day conference complements the exhibition Turmoil
and Tranquillity: the Sea through the Eyes of Dutch and Flemish Masters
1550-1700 (20 June 2008-11 January 2009) at the National Maritime
Museum, Greenwich, UK. The Museum holds one of Europe?s finest
collections of Dutch and Flemish marine art from the sixteenth to the
end of the seventeenth century. The conference aims to build both on the
themes raised by the exhibition and on the expertise of academic and
museum based scholars in the field.

Between 1550 and 1700 artists from the Netherlands, both Flemish and
Dutch, captured the natural elements, air, light and water, in arresting
images. Discovering nature for art in their new and particular way, they
began to portray the sea in its own right and as a setting of great
religious or historical drama. Painters also introduced everyday life
into these seascapes ? peaceful shores and bustling quaysides, familiar
and foreign, vessels sailing, trading, fishing and whaling. Since the
late fifteenth century, European travel, exploration and discovery
across the world?s oceans had accelerated. This maritime expansion and
the new scientific knowledge as well as the naval conflict related to it
are reflected in many of the works.

The seascape first developed more prominently among Flemish artists in
the Southern Netherlands and the split of the Northern Provinces from
Spanish rule as well as the subsequent success of the young Dutch
Republic certainly had an impact on the development of the subject
matter and its stylistic rendering, but marine painting remained the
collective achievement of both Dutch and Flemish painters. To the
artists and to their contemporary audiences this subject matter proved
highly versatile, not least embracing all states of nature between
storms and calms, placing their images between landscape and history
painting and expressing the grand moods from turmoil to tranquillity.
The genre?s success, its ability to forward ideals of national identity,
concepts of nature and religious metaphor was readily acknowledged by
other maritime nations, not least Britain. The most prominent example of
this appreciation may be Charles II?s invitation to Willem van de Velde,
the Elder, and his son, Willem, the Younger, to work as court painters
in 1672/3.

CONFERENCE PROGRAMME

The full programme will be announced in due course. Speakers include:

Caroline Hampton, Head of Paintings Conservation, NMM
Dr Friso Lammertse, Curator of Old Master paintings, Museum Boijmans Van
Beuningen, Rotterdam
Dr Richard Johns, Curator of Prints and Drawing, NMM
Virginia Llado-Buisan, Head of Paper Conservation, NMM
Dr Andrew Moore, Keeper of Art & Senior Curator, Norfolk Museums &
Archaeology Service
Roger Quarm, Curator of Paintings, NMM
Dr Gary Schwartz, founding director of CODART
Dr Martina Sitt, Head of department of paintings, Hamburger Kunsthalle,
Hamburg
Dr Joaneath Spicer, The James A. Murnaghan Curator of Renaissance and
Baroque Art, The Walters Art Museum, Baltimore

DATES AND TIMES

Thursday 13 November, 16.00- 20.00, gallery tour, introductory
talk/lecture and canapé reception
Friday 14 November, 09.30-17.00, conference papers

FEE

Full Fee: £60.00
Daily rate for 14 November only: £40.00

Student Fee: £30.00
Student daily rate for 14 November only: £20.00

BOOKING

For more information or to book a place please contact:

Mrs Janet Norton
NMM Research Administrator
National Maritime Museum
Greenwich
London SE10 9NF
UK

Email: researchnmm.ac.uk
Tel: + 44 (0)20 8312 6716
Website: www.nmm.ac.uk/conferences

For more information on the exhibition: www.nmm.ac.uk/turmoil