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Things Seen in Holland
the old “little masters”[1]—Ostade, Jan Steen, Gerard Dou, Terborch, and others—has depicted a kermis scene, which reveals these saturnalia in all their nauseating hideousness. Many towns and villages have their kermis which lasts from three days to a week, generally the latter. During the day the inhabitants wander about the streets dancing and shouting, riding on merry-go-rounds, enjoying the attractions of more or less elevating peep-shows, and greedily gorging themselves with fried botjes (flounders), gerookten
- ↑ In regard to the term “little masters,” Mr. David C. Preyer writes in his “The Art of the Netherlands Galleries”: “The appellation has been given through a misconception of the use of this term in Holland, where it referred originally to the size of their paintings—to their ‘little masterpieces’—and by transition to the artists who painted these. They were masters—‘great masters’— painting in ‘little.’”
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