Golden Age painting

Attribution: how sure is the museum?

• Museum labels grade their certainty with fixed formulas: Rembrandt (by the master himself), toegeschreven aan Rembrandt (probably by him), atelier/werkplaats van Rembrandt (made in his workshop), kring van or navolger van Rembrandt (by someone in his circle or a later follower).
• Genre names are compounds with -stuk, and like het stuk they are all het-words: het zeestuk (seascape), het genrestuk (everyday scene), het schutterstuk (militia group portrait; Rembrandt's Nachtwacht is one), het bloemstuk.
• A vanitasstilleven (skull, guttering candle, soap bubbles) is a memento mori: all earthly things are vain. Genre scenes often carry a moral: Jan Steen's chaotic households gave Dutch the expression een huishouden van Jan Steen.
• Vermeer's Meisje met de parel is usually described as a tronie: a study of a face, type or expression rather than a portrait of a known sitter.
• Clair-obscur is the dramatic contrast of light and dark associated with Rembrandt; a doorkijkje is the view through a doorway into another room, a speciality of Pieter de Hooch.