Car Rental Netherland

Culture:

The Dutch writer, scholar, and humanist Desiderius Erasmus was a major influence in northern Europe during the 16th century, and the country's cultural life as a whole achieved an international reputation in the 17th century, which is often called the Dutch Golden Age.

The famous astronomer and mathematician Christiaan Huygens discovered Saturn's moon Titan and invented an accurate clock.

The Netherlands history of the art began in the Flander region. During the 20th century Dutch art was influenced by fauvism, cubism, and expressionism. This city has a history of many great painters like Rembrandt van Rijn, Johannes Vermeer, Jan Steen, Vincent van Gogh, Piet Mondriaan and likes.

Traditional Frisian Music Encompassing most of the historic region of Frisia, the province of Friesland has maintained its own language and culture since its integration with the Netherlands in 1579. Heard here is music for a Frisian hakketoone, a pair dance where couples perform with their faces to the sun. The traditional music, played by small instrumental ensembles featuring the violin and accordion, consists of a series of melodies, many of which originated in nearby countries of Scandinavia as well as in England and Germany.

Among the influential Dutch figures of that time were the jurist Hugo Grotius, the scientists Christiaan Huygens and Antoni van Leeuwenhoek, the cartographers Willem Janszoon Blaeu and Jodocus Hondius, the writers Pieter Corneliszoon Hooft and Joost van den Vondel, the philosopher Baruch Spinoza, and numerous theologians.

In addition, foreigners lived in Holland to enjoy its tolerant atmosphere, the most famous being the French philosopher and mathematician René Descartes and the English philosopher John Locke. Well-known figures of the Golden Age include the great 17th-century Dutch artists, such as Rembrandt, Jan Vermeer, Frans Hals, and Jan Steen. The Dutch artistic tradition continued to be vigorous in more recent centuries-producing such noted and influential painters as Vincent van Gogh, Piet Mondrian, and Karel Appel-and lives on today, particularly in Amsterdam, where artists from many countries work. See Baroque Art and Architecture; Dutch Literature; Frisian Literature; Renaissance Art and Architecture.

The Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra of Amsterdam has an international reputation, and there is also a major symphony orchestra in Rotterdam. The country's main libraries are those of the State University of Leiden, the University of Amsterdam, and the Royal Library in The Hague. In addition, the country has many public libraries. Of the country's numerous museums the most famous are those displaying the work of Dutch painters. These include the Rijksmuseum (state museum), the Rembrandt-Huis Museum, the Vincent van Gogh National Museum, and the Stedelijk (municipal) Museum, all in Amsterdam; the Royal Picture Gallery (Mauritshuis), in The Hague; the Boymans-van Beuningen Museum, in Rotterdam; and the Kröller-Müller National Museum, in Hoge Veluwe National Park in Otterlo.

The organization of cultural activity and social life in the Netherlands began to change significantly in the 1960s. Until then, most facets of Dutch life were organized systematically in what are called pillars, or groups. In education, politics, the media, medicine, the trade unions, and other segments of Dutch life, institutions were specifically Protestant, Roman Catholic, or public (non-denominational) and were represented on committees at all levels of government. As the country underwent change, socialist and liberal non-sectarian groups joined the denominational ones, and some institutions became independent of the pillar system. By the 1980s most people had become less firmly attached to a specific pillar.