Artist Quote by Peter Frankopan
““An English visitor to Amsterdam in 1640 could not hide how impressed he was by what he saw. In the Low Countries, wrote Peter Mundy, even houses of “indifferent quality” were filled with furniture and ornaments “very Costly and Curious, Full of pleasure and home contentment, as Ritche Cupboards, Cabinetts…Imagery, porcelain, Costly Fine cages with birds” and more besides. Even butchers and bakers, blacksmiths and cobblers had paintings and luxury trinkets in their homes.60 “I was amazed,” wrote the English diarist John Evelyn about the annual fair in Rotterdam at around the same time; it was flooded with paintings, especially with “landscapes and drolleries, as they call those clownish representations.” Even common farmers had become avid art collectors.””
About This Quote
Source Book: "The Silk Roads", 2015
In 17th‑century Holland, even modest households displayed wealth through art, showing widespread prosperity.
In simple terms: Art was common among all classes.
Key Takeaway
Recognize shared cultural richness.
Themes
history
economics
art
social class
Mood
analytical
curious
Type
historical
observational
When to use this quote
- museum curation
- heritage tourism
- urban development
- education on art history
Key Concepts
consumerism
cultural diffusion
Questions to Reflect On
- What does this reveal about status symbols?
- How did trade influence daily life?
A Different Perspective
Wealth disparity still existed despite appearances.
![“My aim is to give you only the things with which I am completely satisfied, even if it means asking you a little more [time] for them... for if I were to do otherwise I'd turn into a mere painting machine and you would be landed with a pile of incomplete work which would put off the most…” quote by Claude Monet](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/804/claude-monet-2110_aim_my-aim-is-to-give-you-only-the-things-wi_3093847.jpg)
![“Contemporaries struggled to make sense of what, to them, was the complete collapse of the world order. “Why does [God] allow us to be weaker and more miserable” than all these tribal peoples, wailed the fifth-century Christian writer Salvian; “why has he allowed us to be conquered by the…” quote by Peter Frankopan](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/7fe/peter-frankopan-27375_world-order_contemporaries-struggled-to-make-sense-o_2033004.jpg)
