Abstract In the light of a newly discovered source of thousands of seventeenth-century Dutch letters found in the English National Archive a case is made for a radical reinterpretation of seventeenth-century Dutch paintings. These so-called “homescapes” feature in the historiography of the modern home as proof of the fact that seventeenth-century Holland was the cradle of female domesticity. However, the captured Dutch letters written to the home front by seamen sailing on the large Dutch mercantile fleet, as well as the women’s letters to their seafaring husbands tell quite a different story. Especially the letters from the home front narrate of dire circumstances and shed a new light on the subjects of the homescapes, more in particular on the subject of letter-reading and letter-writing females, and intimate mother-and-child scenes. The nineteenth-century revaluation of the glory of seventeenth-century Dutch painting in general and the homescapes in particular explains how the myth of Holland as the cradle of female domesticity came into existence.

中文翻译：

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摇晃荷兰家庭生活的摇篮：对 17 世纪“家园景观”的彻底重新诠释1

摘要 鉴于在英国国家档案馆中发现的数千份 17 世纪荷兰信件的新来源，有必要对 17 世纪荷兰绘画进行彻底的重新解释。这些所谓的“家庭景观”出现在现代家庭的历史编纂中，证明了 17 世纪的荷兰是女性家庭生活的摇篮。然而，在荷兰大型商船队中航行的海员们写给国内前线的被俘的荷兰信件，以及女性写给她们航海丈夫的信件讲述了一个完全不同的故事。尤其是家庭前线的来信，叙述了可怕的情况，对家乡的主题有了新的认识，尤其是读信和写信的女性，以及亲密的母子场景。