The symposium is part of Yale's interdisciplinary graduate program in Early Modern Studies and aims to bring together different approaches and perspectives to provide innovative impetus for research into the early modern period.
In this context, Robert Felfe will give a lecture on: “New worlds – ancient coastlines. Mediterranean phantasies and global expansionism in Dutch art”
The lecture focuses on the striking phenomenon that, particularly around the middle of the 17th century, Dutch painting increasingly turned its attention to the Mediterranean, its coasts, and its ports. How can we understand the popularity of this theme—a key question—at this particular time, when the northern Netherlands was engaged in a highly conflictual struggle to assert itself as the leading European maritime power in global terms, between the Americas and East Asia?