The Cambridge Companion to the Dutch Golden Age

"Even today few people are unaffected by the term 'Dutch Golden Age'. So commonly has the phrase been applied to the Dutch seventeenth century in, for instance, museums, (art) history books, and tourist guides that it seldom fails to conjure up a range of iconic associations. For many, it will evoke pictures by Rembrandt, Vermeer, Hals, or one of the many other only slightly less famous painters. Others associate it primarily with Dutch economic prosperity and the Republic's trade empire, and might envision the rich merchant houses along the Amsterdam canals, Delftware, or the great East India men of the VOC. Some will think of one or two of the many wars fought by the Dutch Republic, most likely the revolt against Habsburg Spain, the three naval wars against England, or the battles against Louis XIV's France. Grotius, Huygens, Spinoza and the great intellectual achievements of the seventeenth-century Dutch Republic might be less prominent in the minds of most people, as would be the rest of its immense textual heritage, but still one can expect one or two mentions from that field as well. And that is only scratching the surface: evidently, the Dutch Golden Age connotes a great many, very disparate things that are nevertheless distinctive enough to be called Dutch."--