Past exhibition

Exhibition Thinking Small: Dutch Art to Scale

February 17, 2023 – July 23, 2023

Thinking Small: Dutch Art to Scale explores an intriguing selection of objects from the 17th-century Netherlands that were designed to elicit slow, intimate, and contemplative engagement on the part of their original audiences. This student-curated exhibition features small-scale works in various media drawn from the rich holdings of the Yale University Art Gallery and other collections across campus, as well as the Center for Netherlandish Art at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and a private collection. Amid the global expansion of Dutch commerce in this period, diagrams and maps miniaturized large geographic areas, and botanical books bore witness to their makers’ meticulous study of the natural world. Paintings filled with minute details enticed viewers to move close and scrutinize the image, while medals that were meant to be held in the hand served as cherished commemorative tokens. In their size or intricacy, the objects in Thinking Small compel viewers to reconsider their relationship to the world around them.

A stemmed cup. The cup itself resembles a shell. It has an iridescent surface that is decorated with images of insects as well as a scene involving four figures. The opening faces directly up and is fitted with a flared, gold-colored lip. A curved section of the shell rises vertically above and alongside the opening and terminates in a gold-colored face, perhaps that of a bird. The shell is supported underneath by an ornate stem on a broad, two-tiered base.

Jan Bellekin, Nautilus Cup, ca. 1660. Engraved shell with silver-gilt mount. Yale University Art Gallery, Marion M. Kemp Fund in memory of her brother, Arthur T. Kemp, B.S. 1894

Painting by Melchior d’Hondecoeter of animals and plants in the forest.

Melchior d’Hondecoeter, Animals and Plants of the Forest, ca. 1670–80. Oil on canvas. Yale University Art Gallery, Bequest of Dr. Herbert and Monika Schaefer

Views of the Exhibition

View of an exhibition with a title wall to the right that says "Thinking Small: Dutch Art to Scale" An iridescent object in the shape of a shell on a metal stand sits on an enclosed pedestal in the foreground of a blue-walled exhibition. In the background, paintings on walls and other pedestals on the floor can be seen View of a blue-walled exhibition with objects in cases in the foreground and paintings on the walls in the distance
  • View of an exhibition with a title wall to the right that says "Thinking Small: Dutch Art to Scale"
  • An iridescent object in the shape of a shell on a metal stand sits on an enclosed pedestal in the foreground of a blue-walled exhibition. In the background, paintings on walls and other pedestals on the floor can be seen
  • View of a blue-walled exhibition with objects in cases in the foreground and paintings on the walls in the distance

Watch the Videos

Exhibition organized by the Yale University Art Gallery in partnership with the Center for Netherlandish Art at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

Exhibition made possible by the Jane and Gerald Katcher Fund for Education, Yale University Art Gallery, and the Bob and Happy Doran Fund for the Center for Netherlandish Art, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Organized by Adam D. C. B. Chen, TD ’23, B.A./M.A. candidate, History of Art; Ekaterina Koposova, Ph.D. student, History of Art; Renata Nagy, Ph.D. candidate, History of Art; and Joyce Yusi Zhou, Ph.D. student, History of Art, all Yale University, under the mentorship of Marisa Bass, Professor in the History of Art, Yale University; Jessie Park, the Nina and Lee Griggs Assistant Curator of European Art, Yale University Art Gallery; and Freyda Spira, the Robert L. Solley Curator of Prints and Drawings, Yale University Art Gallery.


Center for Netherlandish Art MFA Boston logo.