It was Brigadoon! The stuff fantasy is made of: it alighted to earth in a blaze of brilliance, this glorious, Golden Age of Dutch art, but in the next moment, it vanished. The very words, Golden Age, summon visions of Rembrandt, Vermeer, Frans Hals, and many other brilliant artists. There is no equivalency in Western history for the phenomenon of 17th-century Holland. How to explain it? Three words: independence, Protestantism, prosperity. Its long, ultimately victorious war of independence from Spain freed the Dutch from the only power structures Europe had ever known–king and Church. A new ruling class emerges, a solid middle class that guides the state and quickly garners immense riches from its maritime empire. But lurking within that wealth was a serpent: Calvinist structure against ostentation in any form. There was only one way to sublimate their riches: art, paintings. (There were more artists than bakers in mid-century Amsterdam.)

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