Rijksmuseum in the context of "Van Gogh Museum"

Printmaking is the process of creating artworks by printing, normally on paper, but also on fabric, wood, metal, and other surfaces. "Traditional printmaking" normally covers only the process of creating prints using a hand processed technique, rather than a photographic reproduction of a visual artwork which would be printed using an electronic machine (a printer); however, there is some cross-over between traditional and digital printmaking, including risograph.

Prints are created by transferring ink from a matrix to a sheet of paper or other material, by a variety of techniques. Common types of matrices include: metal plates for engraving, etching and related intaglio printing techniques; stone, aluminum, or polymer for lithography; blocks of wood for woodcuts and wood engravings; and linoleum for linocuts. Screens made of silk or synthetic fabrics are used for the screen printing process. Other types of matrix substrates and related processes are discussed below.

Baroque painting is the painting associated with the Baroque cultural movement. The movement is often identified with Absolutism, the Counter Reformation and Catholic Revival, but the existence of important Baroque art and architecture in non-absolutist and Protestant states throughout Western Europe underscores its widespread popularity.

Baroque painting encompasses a great range of styles, as most important and major painting during the period beginning around 1600 and continuing throughout the 17th century, and into the early 18th century is identified today as Baroque painting. In its most typical manifestations, Baroque art is characterized by great drama, rich, deep colour, and intense light and dark shadows, but the classicism of French Baroque painters like Poussin and Dutch genre painters such as Vermeer are also covered by the term, at least in English. As opposed to Renaissance art, which usually showed the moment before an event took place, Baroque artists chose the most dramatic point, the moment when the action was occurring: Michelangelo, working in the High Renaissance, shows his David composed and still before he battles Goliath; Bernini's Baroque David is caught in the act of hurling the stone at the giant. Baroque art was meant to evoke emotion and passion instead of the calm rationality that had been prized during the Renaissance.

In Hinduism, in the Devi Mahatmya, Chanda and Munda are asuras (demons) in the service of demons Shumbha and Nishumbha. One day, they set their eyes upon Parvati and were overwhelmed by her beauty. They carried reports of this goddess to Shumbha. Shumbha desired to marry her. After the death of his lieutenant Dhumralochana at the hands of Devi, Shumbha sent Chanda and Munda to fight her, with orders to bring her to him by force. After Chanda and Munda approached the Devi, she turned black and Kali sprung from her forehead and killed them. Then, since she had slain Chanda and Munda, the Devi gave the name "Chamunda" to Kali. Afterwards, the demon Raktabīja was sent by the demons, but was also slain by Goddess Kali.

According to Skanda Purana Purana, Chanda and Munda also worshipped Surya.

Early European personifications of America, meaning the Americas, typically come from sets of the four continents: Europe, Asia, Africa, and America. These were all that were then known in Europe. The addition of America made these an even more attractive group to represent visually, as sets of four could be placed around all sorts of four-sided objects, or in pairs along the facade of a building with a central doorway.

A set of loose conventions quickly arose as to the iconography of the personifications. They were normally female, with Europe queenly and grandly dressed, and clearly the leader of the group. Asia is fully and richly dressed but in an exotic style, with Africa and America at most half-dressed, and given exotic props. One of the earliest and most persistent attributes for America was the parrot; these reached Europe by the early 16th century and were highly valued. The feather crown headdress, with the feathers standing up vertically, reflected the actual headgear of some American peoples. This personification was staged at Whitehall Palace in December 1613 by a dancer in The Somerset Masque wearing "a skin coat the colour of the juice of mulberries, on her head large round brims of many coloured feathers, and in the midst of it a small crown". A cornucopia, representing the new edible plants from the Americas, was a very common feature (although the familiar apple often seems the most prominent). America is often accompanied by an improbably placid caiman or alligator, reasonably comparable to Old World crocodiles, though the earliest images may show an exotic armadillo.

Dutch art describes the history of visual arts in the Netherlands, after the United Provinces separated from Flanders. Earlier painting in the area is covered in Early Netherlandish painting and Dutch and Flemish Renaissance painting.

Dutch Golden Age painting, spanning from about 1620 to 1680, was a distinct style and movement that evolved out of the Flemish Baroque tradition. It was a period of great artistic achievement in the Netherlands. There was a healthy artistic climate in Dutch cities during the seventeenth century. For example, between 1605 and 1635, over 100,000 paintings were produced in Haarlem. At that time, art ownership in the city was 25%, a record high. After the end of the Golden Age, production of paintings remained high, but ceased to influence the rest of Europe as strongly.

Cornelis Sebille Roos or Cornelis Roos (1754 – 1820) was a Dutch art dealer and inspector of the Nationale Konst-Gallery collection in Huis ten Bosch during the years 1799-1801

Roos was born 10 January 1754 in Amsterdam and baptized six days later in the Walloon church. He became a drawing teacher and manager of Felix Meritis, which he helped found. In 1798 he lived in the left-hand side of the Trippenhuis where he started his art dealership. Many of the paintings he originally purchased have found their way into the collection of the Rijksmuseum. He was friends with Jan Gildemeester and attended the estate sale of his art collection, buying many pieces there that later found their way in the Huis ten Bosch collection. The most notable of these was The Threatened Swan by Jan Asselijn, which became the first painting purchased by the director of the Nationale Konst-Gallery, Alexander Gogel. The painting, which is not dated, was painted before the events which caused it to be marked. It was marked to make it a political allegory of the patriot hero Johan de Witt who was murdered by orangists. Since Roos was known for his patriotic politics, it is quite possible that he marked the painting himself when he bought it in 1800, though the estate sale catalog already mentions that it is an allegory of Johan de Witt.

Jan Gerard Waldorp (1740–1808) was a Dutch artist and museum curator. He received all paying visitors to the Nationale Kunst-Galerij in the Hague (1800–1805), one of the forerunners of the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam.

Jan Gerard Waldorp was a pupil of Anthony Elliger and Jan Maurits Quinkhard. He was active in Amsterdam during the years 1758–1767 and then moved to Haarlem, where he married Elisabeth van der Horst and was in the board of the Stadstekenacademie. In 1779 he moved back to Amsterdam.