there were relatively few paintings with religious themes during this period. the reason for this was that most dutch were calvinist. calvinism forbade religious painting in churches. even though such subjects were acceptable in private homes, they were not very popular. the other traditional classes of history and portrait painting were present, but the period is more notable for a huge variety of other genres, sub-divided into numerous specialized categories, such as scenes of peasant life, landscapes, townscapes, landscapes with animals, maritime paintings, flower paintings and still lifes of various types. the development of many of these types of painting was decisively influenced by 17th-century dutch artists.