The periwig era and the Enlightenment
After the Golden Age, art grew more elegant and more French, and it moved into the drawing rooms, ceilings and cabinets of collectors in burghers’ houses.
In the Netherlands the 18th century is sometimes called the pruikentijd, the periwig era, after the powdered wigs worn by gentlemen. For a long time the period was seen as a decline after the Golden Age. The Republic lost its standing as a great power, and the art market shrank. But the wealthy families of Amsterdam and The Hague still had money, and they spent it on elegant houses, painted walls and ceilings, porcelain, furniture and collections. Taste became lighter and more French, and the decorative arts took on a new importance. This was an art for the home rather than for the market.
Painting lived on in several genres. Rachel Ruysch and Jan van Huysum painted flower still lifes that sold for very high prices and were collected by princes all over Europe. Jacob de Wit painted ceilings and illusionistic reliefs in grey, so skilful that they look like carved stone. Cornelis Troost depicted middle-class life and the theatre with humour and a sharp eye, often in pastel and gouache. Portrait painters supplied the regents with elegant likenesses in the French manner.
In the south, the Spanish Netherlands became Austrian after the Peace of Utrecht in 1713. Brussels gained new squares and palaces, and the churches were filled with magnificent pulpits of carved wood. Towards the end of the century the ideas of the Enlightenment spread. Scientific societies and museums were founded, such as Teylers in Haarlem. The revolutions of the 1780s and 1790s transformed both north and south, and the French armies carried art treasures from Antwerp and Ghent to Paris. With that, the old order came to an end in both parts of the country.