TY  - JOUR
T1  - Expedition Silk Road: Art and Trade in the Dutch Golden Age
AU  - Synn, Chaeki Freya 
JO  - Acta Via Serica
PY  - 2017
DA  - 2017/1/1
DO  - 10.22679/AVS.2017.2.1.49
KW  - Silk Road
KW  - Art
KW  - Trade
KW  - Porcelain
KW  - Dutch Painting
KW  - Landscape
KW  - Still Life
KW  - Seventeenth Century
AB  - During the seventeenth century, Amsterdam experienced unprecedented growth and affluence, and the city developed into the world’s staple market playing an indispensable role in Silk Road trade. This era, which coincides with post-reformation Dutch society, also allowed artists to produce art works depicting objects from everyday life, moving away from the earlier religious subject matter. This paper intends to look into seventeenth century Dutch paintings from their social setting, especially focusing on the influence of the Silk Road in the art making process. The paper also looks into the Chinese side of Silk Road interaction and discusses how Chinese porcelain reflects cultural influence from the Dutch. The paper incorporates Silk Road as a methodology to discuss art works departing from earlier practices in art history. This approach allows us to understand art as a product of multi-disciplinary, multi-cultural experience. The methodology invites more discussion on numerous art forms which emerged along the Silk Road trading route to expand and explore the history of East-West cultural exchange.