The seventeenth century was dominated by the Baroque style, which is characterized by a sense of drama and movement, conveyed through bravura brushwork, exaggerated lighting effects, and more shocking depictions of violence than previously seen in Western art.

In this era, artists began working on larger canvases, giving their works a sense of monumentality. While the Baroque style is frequently associated with the Catholic Counter-Reformation, artists in Protestant northern Europe shifted their focus to more secular subjects such as still-lifes, landscapes, portraits, and intimate depictions of domestic life.

Eskenazi Museum of Art’s collection, with a good representation of both Italian and Dutch seventeenth-century paintings, not only offers insight into the different approaches of artists in northern and southern Europe, but also into the international artistic exchanges that occurred during this century.