This lavishly illustrated catalogue presents the other face of the Golden Age, Dutch Classicism. Contrasting with Dutch Realism's scenes of middle-class life exemplified by Rembrandt and Vermeer. Dutch Classicist painters embraced timeless, lofty subjects from mythology, literature, and history, and were commissioned to decorate the mansions and palaces of a 17th century, classically educated Dutch aristocracy. Artists like Salomon and Jan de Bray, Caesar van Everdingen, Pieter de Grebber, and Gerard de Lairesse used remarkably bright colors, and a smooth, highly refined style to paint idealistic, glorified subjects, many of which included a great deal of classical nudity. Exploring every facet of Dutch Classicism, this immaculate reference volume examines 68 paintings by 27 artists, and analyzing each work and providing thorough biographies and bibliographies on each artist. Also included are three introductory essays: Albert Blankert on classicist painting, its context and meaning; Koen Ottenheym on architecture; and Arie Jan Gelderblom on classicist tendencies in poetry and literature. For many readers this will be an enticing first encounter with these paintings, for others a veritable rediscovery.