Lecture Series: The Story of Art | All in the Details: Dutch Golden Age
Description
Bassam Freiha Art Foundation continues its monthly lecture series, The Story of Art, with the upcoming session It’s All in the Details: Dutch Golden Age, dedicated to one of the most technically masterful and visually nuanced periods in European art history. Led by Dr. Michaela Watrelot, the lecture explores the precision, sophistication, and quiet drama that define 17th-century Dutch painting.
Through an immersive visual journey, the session examines how artists such as Rembrandt, Vermeer, and Frans Hals transform ordinary moments into scenes rich with meaning, symbolism, and emotional depth. Dr. Watrelot highlights their extraordinary command of light, texture, and meticulous detail, elements that reveal domestic life, social values, and shifting ideas about identity in the Dutch Republic.
The lecture invites attendees to discover how the Dutch Golden Age elevates the everyday into the extraordinary, showing how careful observation can unlock new layers of interpretation and appreciation.
Following The Mirror of Nature: Baroque Art, this session continues the Foundation’s commitment to accessible art education, nurturing curiosity, and deepening cultural dialogue within the community.
Dr. Michaela Watrelot
Dr. Michaela Watrelot is a curator, educator, and author with a PhD in History of Art from Charles University in Prague. At Bassam Freiha Art Foundation, she leads exhibition planning, education, and strategic partnerships. Her expertise spans 19th- and 20th-century art, public art commissions, and art market studies, and she is the author of Wilhelm von Bode and the American Art Market: The Rudolphe Kann Collection (Routledge, 2023)