The Seventeenth Century Golden Age in Dutch painting coincided with political and spiritual independence from ruling Spain. Increasing mercantile prosperity provided new patrons of the arts who no longer wanted pictures containing a traditional iconography related to the Catholic Church. Artists needed to respond to the moral issues of the day with a new artistic code of interpretation. Into this world we meet Frans Hals, Rembrandt and Vermeer, together with artists less well known who specialised in topics such as the new “still life” painting. Such images were full of hidden meaning that had to be decoded. They were then contemplated and reflected upon with the same degree of reverence that had hitherto been accorded to their religious predecessors.