Hannah Im | Discussion Post 8
Claudia Swan’s lecture on the Dutch Colonial Imaginary focused on depictions of Blackness in Dutch visual art and the Dutch fixation on luxury objects. While this lecture centered on the relationship between the Dutch as a colonial force and Black people as laborers, similar ideas also apply to Weststeijn’s “Introduction: Global Art History and the Netherlands.”
Westesteijn explains how the term schilderachtig, which means picturesque, encompasses the Dutch curiosity in objects from the Four Continents (13). Rembrandt’s many paintings of Chinese porcelain are one example (14). Swan provides two additional examples: ebony and exotic shells. Swan made an interesting point about how Dutch visual art mirrors the Dutch people’s idea of luxury. Depictions of such objects are driving forces in the creation of a colonial aesthetic. Rembrandt’s paintings of ebony furniture or picture frames characterize “high taste.” These objects bolster the colonial country’s capitalistic economy, propriety, and power over other nations.
The two pieces of thought differ, however. Westesteijn describes an exchange between Chinese artists and the Dutch, while Swan describes a reliance on Black labor by the Dutch. Westesteijn details how Chinese painters dismissed aspects of Western painting; they maintain a sense of autonomy in formulating their own theories of art. While both relationships are products of Dutch colonialism, Black subjects and bodies are also used to push colonial aesthetics. Unidentifiable Black servants are intentionally included to foil the white subjects. This idea of race crafting is prevalent in Swan’s lecture. Westesteijn describes more of a mutual exchange between East Asia and The Netherlands; the idea of race crafting as related to depictions of East Asia in Dutch art must be further examined.
Swan, Claudia. “A Material History of the Dutch Colonial Imaginary.” Art History Guest Lecture, 16 Mar. 2023, Emory University, Ackerman Hall. Lecture.
Weststeijn, Thijs. “Introduction: Global Art History and the Netherlands.” Nederlands Kunsthistorisch Jaarboek (NKJ) / Netherlands Yearbook for History of Art, vol. 66, 2016, pp. 6–27. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/44657323. Accessed 18 Mar. 2023.