It is said that much of the greatest art is produced during periods of strife. In the mid-16th century, the Netherlands - the United Provinces in the north (modern Holland) and the Spanish-ruled south (modern Belgium) - was the most sophisticated society in Europe, but its learning and luxury industries were all but annihilated by the so-called Dutch Revolt and by the Eighty Years War that followed (1568-1648). Two-thirds of the works discussed...