EMOTIONS

Fear, sorrow, surprise, anger, lust and love little was more important in the painting of the Golden Age than conveying human emot ions convincingly. Seventeenth-century connoisseurs believed that the beauty of a painting was not half as important as the passions it portrayed: these were the soul of the work. Artists like Rembrandt, Frans Hals, Maerten van Heemskerck and Cornelis van Haarle m were masters in depicting very diverse emotions.