Art 116 Final
Protestant Reformation
A religious movement of the 16th century that began as an attempt to reform the Roman Catholic Church and resulted in the creation of Protestant churches.
*Cornelia Pointing to Her Children as Her Treasures
Angelica Kauffmann ,1785, oil on canvas Roman architectural influences frame two women portrayed wearing what one can imagine is typical of ancient Roman dress, along with three children, also wearing masterfully draped togas with thin leather sandals. They look like they might have stepped directly off a temple's pediment. This painting is an exemplum virtutis, or a model of virtue. The story that Kauffmann painted is that of Cornelia, an ancient Roman woman who was the mother of the future political leaders Tiberius and Gaius Gracchus. The brothers Gracchi were politicians in second-century B.C.E. Rome. They sought social reform and were seen as friends to the average Roman citizen. The scene that we see in Kauffmann's painting illustrates one such example of Cornelia's teachings. A visitor has come to her home to show off a wonderful array of jewelry and precious gems, what one might call treasures. To her visitor's chagrin, when she asks Cornelia to reveal her treasures she humbly brings her children forward, instead of running to get her own jewelry box. The message is clear; the most precious treasures of any woman are not material possessions, but the children who are our future. You can almost feel the embarrassment when you look at the face of the visitor, who Kauffmann has smartly painted with a furrowed brow and slightly gaped mouth.
*Angelica Kauffmann, Self-Portrait
Angelica Kauffmann, 1770-75, oil on canvas Kauffman shows herself with crayon at the ready and her portfolio. This pose was developed during the eighteenth century, notably in England, for portraits of lady amateurs. There was a strong barrier between professional and amateur female artists at this time; amateurs did not have artistic training, they could not sell their work, and largely, their work was not particularly strong. For unknown reasons however, Kauffman associated with the amateur and repeatedly painted herself in the given pose throughout her career. Kaufmann was the daughter of a painter, born and trained in Switzerland and the Royal Academy in London. It seemed important to Kauffman that her paintings could be widely reproduced as prints. Known for history paintings, a prominent neoclassical artist.
*Still Life of with Dead Game and Birds
Clara Peeters, oil on wood panel, c.1611 https://www.museodelprado.es/en/the-collection/art-work/still-life-with-a-sparrow-hawk-fowl-porcelain-and/11137fd7-e7a6-46d0-8345-08172ee26193
*Clara Peeters, Vanitas Portrait
Clara Peeters, oil on wood panel, c.1613-20
Romanticism
A Western cultural phenomenon, around 1750-1850, that gave precedence to feeling and imagination rather than reason and rational thought (also refer to text and lecture notes for details).
*Still Life with Flowers, Goblet, Dried Fruit, and Pretzels
Clara Peeters, c.1611, oil on wood panel Peeters was a pioneer of still-life painting. In this breakfast piece, she reveals her virtuosity in depicting a variety of objects. She laid the groundwork for many Dutch still-life painters.
Archers of St. Hadrian
Frans Hals, 1633, oil on canvas Hals's most ambitious portraits reflect the widespread popularity in the Dutch republic of very large canvases commemorating the participation of Dutch burghers in civic organizations. These commissions presented greater difficulties to the painter than requests to depict a single sitter. Hals rose to the challenge and achieved great success with this new portrait genre. His Archers of Saint Hadrian is typical in that the subject is one of the many Dutch civic militia groups that claimed credit for liberating the Dutch republic from Spain. as did other companies, each year the archers met in dress uniform for a grand banquet on their saint's feast day. The celebrations sometimes lasted an entire week, prompting an ordinance limiting them to three or four days. These events often included sitting for a group portrait. in Archers of Saint Hadrian, Hals attacked the problem of how to represent each militia member satisfactorily yet retain action and variety in the composition. Whereas earlier group portraits in the Netherlands were rather ordered and regimented images, Hals sought to enliven the depictions. in his portrait of the Saint Hadrian militiamen, each member is both part of the troop and an individual with unique features.
Painterly
In a painting, application of the paint in such a manner that the brushwork is allowed to show
The Flute Player
Judith Leyster, c.1630, oil on canvas Judith Jans Leyster was a Dutch Golden Age painter. She painted genre works, portraits and still lifes. Although her work was highly regarded by her contemporaries, Leyster and her work became almost forgotten after her death. Some scholars speculate that Leyster pursued a career in painting to help support her family after her father's bankruptcy. She may have learned painting from Frans Pietersz de Grebber, who was running a respected workshop in Haarlem in the 1620s (the first woman admitted at 24). This uncluttered yet sophisticated composition exquisitely combines portrait, genre and still-life with light and shade 'playing across a variety of shapes, textures and subdued colours'. The bold free brushwork and dramatically lit, off-centre, half-length figure viewed from below is typical of Leyster's work. The beautifully depicted violin and recorder (symbols of harmony and peace respectively) together with the boy's radiant, angelic gaze allude to music's 'capacity to inspire'. The patched coat, broken chair and sparse surroundings hint at financial hardship with which the artist herself was very familiar.
A Dutch Courtyard
Pieter de Hooch, c.1660, oil on canvas He gave order to his compositions by emphasizing the geometry of architectural elements. The positioning of doors, windows and their shutters, floor tiles, and bricks was all carefully calculated and painted. Women going about their daily chores or attending to visitors, such as the soldiers seen here sitting around a table smoking and drinking, are a frequent theme in De Hooch's work. The man wearing a breastplate is setting down the pitcher he has used to refill the "pass-glass" held by the woman. The pass-glass was used in drinking games. Each participant had to drink down to a circular line on the glass; failing to reach the exact level, the reveler would be required to drink down to the next ring. Only when this was done successfully would the glass be passed on to the next participant. The little girl carries a brazier of hot coals so that the two soldiers can light their long-stemmed, white clay pipes. Despite its apparent realism, and the presence of the tower of the Nieuwe Kerk in the background, the scene probably does not depict a specific courtyard.
Flowers in a Vase
Rachel Ruysch, c.1710-15?, oil in canvas (in Norton Simon
Draughtsmanship
The ability to draw well
Idealization
The method of portraying people, places, or things in a romanticized, and unrealistically perfect form.
Frieze composition
The part of the entablature between the architrave and the cornice; also, any sculptured or painted band.
Photorealism
A painting and sculpture movement of the 1960s and 1970s that emphasized producing artworks based on scrupulous fidelity to optical fact. The Superrealist painters were also called Photorealists because many used photographs as sources for their imagery.
Still life
A picture depicting an arrangement of inanimate objects.
Neo-Classicism
A style of art and architecture that emerged in the late 18th century as part of a general revival of interest in Classical Greek and Roman cultures, with emphasis on themes from Classical Antiquity, controlled draughtsmanship and chiaroscuro, idealized form, and moral themes (also refer to text and lecture notes for details). (Gardner's Ch. 26, Framing the Era and Boxed Essays)
Genre
A style or category of art; also, a kind of painting that realistically depicts scenes from everyday life.
"Utrecht School"
A group of three Dutch painters—Dirck van Baburen (c. 1590-1624), Gerrit van Honthorst (1590-1656), and Hendrik Terbrugghen (1588-1629)—who went to Rome and fell fully under the pervasive influence of Caravaggio's art before returning to Utrecht. Utrecht emerged as one of the major centers of flower paintings in oils
Vanitas
A type of subject in art referring to the indulgence of the senses ["the vanities of life"], with a moral overtone admonishing the viewer to turn attention to more permanent concerns, such as the salvation of the soul, as opposed to the temporary pleasures of the senses. There are two main categories of Vanitas painting: those which symbolize death with objects such as skulls, candles and withered flowers and those which symbolize fleeting pleasures with objects such as books, jewelry and money. Many paintings combine symbols of death and ephemerality. Latin, "vanity." A term describing paintings (particularly 17th-century Dutch still lifes) that include references to death.
*Adelaide Labille-Guiard, Self-Portrait With Pupils
Adelaide Labille-Guiard, 1785, oil on canvas Adélaïde Labille-Guiard was a French miniaturist and portrait painter. She was an advocate for women to receive the same opportunities as men to become great painters. Labille-Guiard was born into a petit-bourgeois family. Noted for both her successful career and active interest in the education of women artists. Did not leave France during the revolution, and had multiple paintings exhibited in the Salon. Labille-Guiard's self-portrait with her students Marie Gabrielle Capet and Marguerite Carreaux de Rosemont is one of the most remarkable images of women's art education in early modern Europe. In 1783, when Labille-Guiard and Elisabeth Vigée Le Brun were admitted to the Académie Royale, the number of women artists eligible for membership was limited to four. This canvas, shown with great success at the Salon of 1785, has been interpreted as a means of advocating their cause. As in most eighteenth-century artists' self-portraits, Labille-Guiard depicted herself in impractically elegant clothing. Helped to establish her reputation as a master painter in oils.
*Table with Orange, Olives and Pie
Clara Peeters, c.1611, oil on wood panel [https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/11/Mesa_%28Clara_Peeters%29.jpg] Clara Peeters (active 1607-1621) was a Flemish still-life painter from Antwerp who worked in both the Spanish Peeters is the best-known female Flemish artist of this era and one of the few women artists working professionally in seventeenth-century Europe, despite restrictions on women's access to artistic training and membership in guilds Peeters's major contribution was in the formation of the banquet andbreakfastpiece;four paintings dating from 1611 include elaborate 58 displays of flowers, chestnuts, bread rolls, butter, and pretzels piled into pewter and delft dishes and presented against austere, almost black backgrounds. Peeters's meticulous delineation of form and the imposing symmetry of her paintings, along with her virtuoso handling of reflective surfaces must have encouraged the spread of still-life painting later in the century, but little documentary material about her remarkable career or her patrons has yet surfaced. Many aspects of her paintings suggest that her paintings would have been created for wealthy collectors, as they are particularly large and depict luxury items of the era.
*Marilyn (Vanitas)
Audrey Flack, 1977, oil over acrylic on canvas In Flack's still-life, Marilyn Monroe is remembered in what could be a shop-window memorial. The two Marilyn portraits are black and white and, like the childhood photograph of Audrey and her brother that sits between them, the photographs sharply contrast with the intense colors that saturate the other objects that make up the shrine. Behind the two portraits of the Hollywood icon, we see a page from a biography that tells of Marilyn's sexual self-awareness and how, moreover, through the 'power' of make-up a woman could "paint oneself into an instrument of one's own will". Given the faded monochrome photographs, the melting candle, the draining hourglass and the over-ripened fruit, Flack's Marilyn possess a symbolic lament to the waning of memory and very possibly the loss of innocence. Flack took her inspiration from the 17th century Vanitas tradition, where the still life is composed of objects that relate to the fleeting 'vanities' of life. Red lipstick, powder, perfume and jewellery can be read, on the one hand, as emblems of Marilyn's public persona but they act also as universal symbols that speak of the superficial and fragile nature of vanity. Flack's Vanitas are brought into the 20th century through the introduction of modern day objects and photographic imagery, producing what she termed "narrative still lifes". These images are painted with a level of exaggerated realism (or hyperrealism): the various textures of delicate rose petals, shiny fruit and transparent glass meticulously copied here from still-life photographs, taken by her neighbour and erstwhile colleague Jeanne Hamilton, of Flak's own studio arrangements. The use of the airbrush to produce rich, sparkling veneers were very unique and thus career-defining and helped secure Flack her rightful place amongst the leading Photorealists of the 1970s.
*Wheel of Fortune
Audrey Flack, 1977-78, oil over acrylic on canvas [http://www.audreyflack.com/photorealism] Audrey Flack is an internationally acclaimed painter and sculptor and a pioneer of photorealism. Ms. Flack enjoys the distinction of being the first Photorealist painter whose work was purchased by the Museum of Modern Art for its permanent collection. In "Wheel of Fortune", by Audrey Flack, many objects illustrate the nature of this fragile life. Again, a skull is present, both in reality and in the mirror's reflection. A candle melts almost to the end, a die is cast, because in the end is fate anything more than a "roll of the dice"? A tarot card reveals the very human need to "see" the future, and the hourglass gives us a reminder of the passage of time, always marching on. There is also a picture in the background of a young girl which might represent youth. Even the lipsticks and jewels, though new and shiny in this moment, are to become muted and dull as years pass on. This piece seems to be about the passage of beauty in women, what we use to keep up the appearance of youth, and what is truly fading just under the surface. We can lacquer up and flourish ourselves in jewels and flowers, but in the end, the sands still drop through the hourglass, and the candle still melts away, and we still come closer and closer to the inevitable.
*Still Life with Cheese, Artichoke and Cherries
Clara Peeters, c.1625, oil on wood panel Her skill in rendering texture is evident in the rough and crumbly cheese and the smooth cherries. Her work is often thought to contain religious iconography and using the commonly associated symbolic meanings of the food depicted in Still Life with Cheeses, Artichoke and Cherries, the painting moves beyond a simple still life to a complex religious message. The dominating forms of the cheese and butter shavings denoting motherhood are coupled with a bread roll that references the Eucharist. A trio of cherries reinforce the image of Christ via their iconographic meaning of the Passion. These items are gathered on the right side of the canvas, with a knife - often used to represent betrayal - dividing the composition and the food. The items on the left have negative connotations when contrasted with the icons of Christ and the Holy Mother on the right. The artichoke was considered an aphrodisiac and therefore could be linked with the sin of lust. The cherries on the left of the painting are in opposition to those on the right because they sit upon a mirrored plate. Mirrors were used to reference the sin vanity as well as lust (1). Salt was used to denote wisdom and appears to sit upon a scale - perhaps to suggest to the viewer to lead a balanced life in order to evade the perils of sin.
*Marie Antoinette With Her Children
Elizabeth Vigée-Lebrun, 1787, oil on canvas Vigée Le Brun's official state portrait of Marie Antoinette with her Children is among the most important paintings of the pre-revolutionary era in France. This painting was commissioned after a resoundingly failed attempt at the subject of the queen and her children by Adolf Ulrik Wertmüller commissioned by Gustav III of Sweden. Today, this work is chiefly recognized as a propagandist image, in that it was created to revitalize the public opinion of the queen, whose reputation was tarnished by rumors of extravagance, infidelity, and other malicious behaviors.
*The Artist and Her Daughter
Elizabeth Vigée-Lebrun, 1789, oil on canvas Vigée Le Brun simply paints herself with her daughter Julie. The two are set against a bare, softly illuminated background and clasp each other in a warm embrace whilst looking towards the viewer. They are not clothed in fashion that would have actually been worn during this period, but dressed in a manner that evokes the ancient past. This represents the rising influence of the Neoclassical style on artists working in France.The use of Neoclassical clothing is a marked difference from Vigée Le Brun's earlier portraits of this type. Although it might be seen as a fashionable affectation, it could also be interpreted as lending the gravity of the classical to motherhood and female relationships, where it was usually only reserved for masculine fraternity and civil values, particularly in the paintings of Jacques-Louis David.
*Elisabeth Vigée-Lebrun, Self-Portrait with Cerise Ribbons
Elizabeth Vigée-Lebrun, oil on canvas, 1776 [https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/656602] Élisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun, also known as Madame Le Brun, was a prominent French portrait painter of the late 18th century. Her artistic style is generally considered part of the aftermath of Rococo with elements of an adopted Neoclassical style. By this time, Vigée Le Brun was a prominent figure in Paris society. Using her femininity to promote her art, she portrays herself in a white chemise dress with cerise ribbons that complement her fair complexion, dark eyes, and unpowdered hair. Like a frame within a frame, the black hat throws her face into relief. She emphasizes her youth and poise.
*Peace Bringing Back Abundance
Elizabeth Vigée-Lebrun, oil on canvas, 1780 Wishing to gain admission to the Académie royale de peinture et de sculpture in 1783 as a history painter, Vigée Le Brun presented this allegory as her reception piece. At the time, historical, mythological, religious, and allegorical subjects were considered superior to all others (portraiture, genre, landscape, and still life). With the American Revolution just ended, the artist's choice was timely. The future is symbolized by Peace, on the right, who is ushering in Abundance with her cornucopia of fruit. Her admittance to the academy, which allowed only four women at any given time, was a double challenge to the restrictions and prevalent gender stereotypes of her time and her marriage to a commercial art dealer. That she did so with a history painting further conflated the issue. As Mary D. Sheriff describes in her text, "Because history paintings displayed and required imagination and judgment two central components of reason they traditionally belonged on the side of the masculine."
* Elisabeth Vigée-Lebrun, Self-Portrait in a Straw Hat
Elizabeth Vigée-Lebrun, oil on canvas, 1782 She wears a dusty pink cotton dress known as a chemise en gaulle and later known as a chemise à la Reine since it was popularized by Queen Marie Antoinette in the 1780s. The richness of the clothing not only projects a sense of luxury and wealth, but also extremely skilled painting - something also evident in the texture and shine of the paints on her palette. What is suggested is that a portrait by Vigée Le Brun will not only be flattering and sumptuously detailed, but that even the sitting itself will be improved by the presence of such a beautiful and amiable artist; fine art and advertising become almost one and the same.
*Elisabeth Vigée-Lebrun, Self-Portrait (at the Easel)
Elizabeth Vigée-Lebrun, oil on canvas, 1791 This particular self-portrait was painted in Rome; one of the first city's in which Vigée-LeBrun stayed during her decade-long exile from France. The artist sits in a relaxed pose at her easel and is positioned slightly off center. She wears a white turban and a dark dress—in the free-flowing style that Marie-Antoinette had made popular at the French court—with a soft, white, ruffled collar of the same material as her headdress. Her belt is a wide red ribbon. Vigée-LeBrun holds a brush to a partially finished work; the subject is probably Marie-Antoinette—perhaps intended as a tribute to her favorite sitter. Slightly used brushes are at the ready along with a palette, she has everything cradled in her arm close to the viewer. The painting expresses an alert intelligence, vibrancy, and freedom from care.
Willem Coymans
Frans Hals, oil on canvas, c.1645 Frans Hals the Elder was a Dutch Golden Age painter, normally of portraits, who lived and worked in Haarlem. Hals played an important role in the evolution of 17th-century group portraiture. He is known for his loose painterly brushwork. The crest bearing three cows' heads, visible on the wall behind the sitter, indicates that this young man is a member of the prosperous Coymans family of Haarlem. The cows' heads refer directly to the Dutch family name, which translates as "cow man." Archival and genealogical information, combined with the Latin inscription "AETA SVAE.22 / 1645" below the shield, identifies the sitter as Willem Coymans, who was twenty-two years old in 1645. The few paintings dated by Frans Hals tend to also provide the subjects' ages, thus serving as genealogies. In addition to this likeness of Willem, Hals painted the portraits of at least four other members of the Coymans family.
The Supper Party
Gerard Honthorst, c.1620, , oil on canvas [Gardner's Ch.25] Gerard van Honthorst was a Dutch Golden Age painter who became known for his depiction of artificially lit scenes, eventually receiving the nickname Gherardo delle Notti. Early in his career he visited Rome, where he had great success painting in a style influenced by Caravaggio. In this painting, van Honthorst presented an informal gathering of unidealized figures. While a musician serenades the group, his companions delight in watching a young woman feeding a piece of chicken to a man whose hands are both occupied—one holds a jug and the other a glass. Genre scenes were popular subjects among middle class Dutch patrons. Gerrit van Honthorst's Supper Party may also have served as a Calvinist warning against the sins of gluttony and lust. Or perhaps the painting represents the loose companions of the Prodigal Son—panderers and prostitutes drinking, singing, strumming, and laughing. Strict Dutch Calvinists no doubt approved of such interpretations.
Martin Luther
German theologian who sparked the Reformation
Oath of the Horatii
Jacques-Louis David, 1784, oil on canvas Jacques-Louis David was a French painter in the Neoclassical style, considered to be the preeminent painter of the era David concurred with the Enlightenment belief that the subject of an artwork should have a moral. Paintings representing noble deeds in the past could inspire virtue in the present. A milestone painting in the Neoclassical master's career, Oath of the Horatii, depicts a story from pre-Republican Rome, the heroic phase of Roman history. Oath of the Horatii is a paragon of the Neoclassical style. Not only does the subject matter deal with a narrative of patriotism and sacrifice excerpted from Roman history, but the painter also employed formal devices to present the image with force and clarity. The action unfolds in a shallow space much like a stage setting, defined by a severely simple architectural framework
Portinari Altarpiece
Hugo van der Goes, oil on wood panel, c.1475 [Gardner's Ch.20] Hugo van der Goes (ca. 1440-1482), who joined the painters' guild of Ghent as a master in 1467 and served as the guild's dean from 1473 to 1475. Hugo painted the triptych in Flanders for Tommaso Portinari, an Italian shipowner and agent in Bruges for the powerful Medici bank of Florence. This altarpiece is a rare instance of the awarding of a major commission in Italy to a Flemish painter. The Florentines admired Hugo's realistic details and brilliant portrayal of human character. The altarpiece was Portinari's gift to the church of Sant'Egidio, and he appears on the wings with his family and their patron saints. The main panel, Adoration of the Shepherds, depicts a subject based on the 14th-century vision of a Swedish saint in which Mary, instead of cradling her newborn son, kneels solemnly to join Joseph, the angels, and the shepherds in adoring the infant Savior, who lies on the ground and glows with divine light. In order to situate the main actors at the center of the panel, Hugo tilted the ground, a compositional device he may have derived from the tilted stage floors of 15th-century mystery plays. Three shepherds enter from the right rear. Hugo represented them in attitudes of wonder, piety, and gaping curiosity. Their lined faces, work-worn hands, and uncouth dress and manner seem immediately familiar. The architecture and a continuous wintry northern European landscape unify the three panels. Symbols surface throughout the altarpiece. Iris and columbine flowers are emblems of the sorrows of the Virgin. The angels represent the 15 joys of Mary. A sheaf of wheat stands for Bethlehem (the "house of bread" in Hebrew), a reference to the Eucharist. The harp of David, emblazoned over the building's portal in the middle distance (just to the right of the Virgin's head), signifies the ancestry of Christ.
Beware of Luxury (or World Upside-Down)
Jan Steen, c.1663, oil on wood The painting depicts a disorderly household given up to licentious or improper behaviour. In this context the word luxury in the title implies excess or self-indulgence. Jan Steen arranges the various actors as though on a theatre stage. The gentle depth of the composition is based on a triangle, with the magnificently dressed young woman at its top point. Her clothing and seductive look identify her as a "loose-living" girl. She, however, is not the focus of the scene; that is provided by the lady of the house, who has fallen asleep at the table on the left. Her "absence" has resulted in the rest of the story: the dog is finishing the meat pie that was served on the table, one of the children is filching something from the cabinet on the wall ("opportunity makes the thief "), the little girl's brother is trying out a pipe, and the youngest child, sitting in his highchair, is playing carelessly with a string of pearls. His attention diverted to the side, a young man is trying to play a violin. Young people who continued to live at home were considered suspect in the popular culture of the Netherlands at the time. The prostitute in the foreground has already been mentioned: in a provocative gesture she holds a filled glass between the legs of the man of the house, while he dismisses with a grin the admonishment of the nun (a Beguine?) standing on the right. The duck on the shoulder of the man next to her identifies him as a Quaker, who urges the reading of pious texts. Finally, the pig in the doorway to the kitchen is an allusion to another proverb: "Neither cast ye your pearls [here: roses] before swine". Hanging above the heads of these sinners are the symbols of the penalty to be expected for unbridled, lustful behaviour: a sword and a crutch in a basket suspended from the ceiling.
The Drawing Lesson
Jan Steen, c.1665, oil on canvas A prosperous brewer's son, Steen enrolled in Leiden University in 1646, but by 1648 he was helping to found the Leiden Guild of Saint Luke. Whereas Vermeer's paintings reveal the charm and beauty of Dutch domesticity, the works of Jan Steen (ca. 1625-1679) provide a counterpoint. His range included riotous tavern scenes and gentle lessons. His commonplace interiors with ordinary people look straightforward, but he usually included a moral, sometimes as an inscription. Allusions to old proverbs, emblems, literature, and the theater abound. A lifelong Catholic, he painted more than sixty religious pictures, usually treating them like incidents in seventeenth-century Holland and not holding back on the humanity or humor. In this allegory of the status of the artist and the nature of his profession, a male artist instructs two pupils: a young boy and a fashionably dressed young woman. A plaster cast of a sculpture of a nude male seems to be the object of the day's exercise in how to draw, but the studio is filled with many other props and materials.On the table are pens, brushes, charcoal pencils, and a woodcut depicting the head of an old man. Several plaster casts hang from a shelf that supports a sculpture of an ox, the symbol of Saint Luke, the patron saint of painters. A plaster putto is suspended from the ceiling in front of a tapestry, which is draped to reveal an easel with a painting and a violin hung on the wall. In the foreground a stretched canvas leans on a chest heaped with a bound album and a carpet. Objects related to the traditional theme of vanitas (vanity), a frequent subject of Dutch still lifes, are piled in the lower right corner. These items--a laurel wreath, a skull, wine, a fur muff, a book, a lute, and a pipe--remind viewers of the brevity of life and fame.
Woman Holding a Balance
Jan Vermeer, c.1664, oil on canvas [Gardner's Ch.25] Although he also painted landscapes, such as View of Delft, Jan Vermeer made his reputation as a painter of interior scenes, another popular subject among middle-class patrons. These paintings offer the viewer glimpses into the private lives of prosperous, responsible, and cultured citizens of the United Provinces. Despite his fame as a painter today, Vermeer derived much of his income from his work as an innkeeper and art dealer in Delft In Woman Holding a Balance, a beautiful young woman wearing a veil and a fur-trimmed jacket stands in a room in her home. Light coming from a window illuminates the scene, as in many of the artist's paintings. The woman stands before a table on which are spread her most precious possessions—pearl necklaces, gold chains, and gold coins, which reflect the sunlight that also shines on the woman's face and the fingers of her right hand. Vermeer's woman holding empty scales in perfect balance, ignoring pearls and gold on the table, is probably an allegory of the temperate life. on the wall behind her is a depiction of the Last Judgment. Vermeer's compositions evoke a matchless classical serenity. Enhancing this quality are colors so true to the optical facts and so subtly modulated that they suggest that Vermeer was far ahead of his time in color science. Vermeer realized that shadows are not colorless and dark, that adjoining colors affect each other, and that light is composed of colors. Thus he painted reflections off of surfaces in colors modified by others nearby. Some scholars have suggested that Vermeer also perceived the phenomenon that modern photographers call "circles of confusion," which appear on out-of-focus negatives.
*The Proposition
Judith Leyster, 1631, oil on wood It depicts a woman, sewing by candlelight, as a man leans over her, touching her right shoulder with his left hand. One commonly accepted interpretation of this painting—and the one from which the painting takes its most common nickname—was proposed by a leading scholar who sees the painting as representing a sexual proposition—one which the woman is staunchly ignoring. This is a novel take on a traditional subject—brothel scenes where men interact with prostitutes or men and women drink and make merry in mixed company were among the most common subjects for genre paintings of the early seventeenth century. This type of scene has a long history in northern art (by artists such as Quentin Metsys, Lucas Cranach, Albrecht Durer, and others) and the actions of the participants was presented as unwise, unrestrained, and sinful, and women are usually presented as seductresses and thieves. These paintings therefore are models of how not to behave. By contrast, Leyster's composition draws on another type of imagery that showed women hard at work—the very model of virtue.
*Judith Leyster, Self-Portrait
Judith Leyster, c. 1635, oil on canvas Leyster's Self-Portrait was once thought to have been painted by Hals himself. The canvas is detailed, precise, and accurate, but also imbued with the spontaneity found in Hals's works. In her self-portrait, Leyster succeeded at communicating a great deal about herself. She depicted herself as an artist, seated in front of a painting on an easel. The palette in her left hand and brush in her right announce the painting as her creation. She thus invites the viewer to evaluate her skill, which both the fiddler on the canvas and the image of herself demonstrate as considerable. Although she produced a wide range of paintings, including still lifes and floral pieces, her specialty was genre scenes such as the comic image seen on the easel. Leyster's quick smile and relaxed pose as she stops her work to meet the viewer's gaze reveal her self-assurance. Although presenting herself as an artist specializing in genre scenes, Leyster wears elegant attire instead of a painter's smock, placing her socially as a member of a well todo family.
Serenade
Judith Leyster, c.1629, oil on canvas The singing lute-player is depicted di sotto in su, from a low vantage point. His extravagant red breeches with yellowish-gold and black stripes are slightly out of focus, creating the illusion that the viewer is looking up at him from close by. It was attributed for centuries to Frans Hals until Wilhelm von Bode saw it in the Six collection in 1883. He noticed the prominent "J" in the signature, and attributed it to Jan Hals
Jacques-Louis David
Key French artist of the Neoclassical movement and academicism
Memento mori
Latin, "reminder of death." In painting, a reminder of human mortality, usually represented by a skull.
*Maria van Oosterwyck, Vanitas
Maria van Oosterwyck, 1668, oil on canvas Maria van Oosterwijck was in the second half of the Golden Age, an acclaimed painter of still lifes. She reached the top of this genre of painting. During her life her paintings found their way to the royal collections in Europe. Although Maria is particularly devoted to floral still lifes, she has several so-called vanitas still lifes painted. In this kind of still life, the transience of earthly life, the transience of earthly goods and the relativity of wealth and knowledge are central elements. But also in these paintings flowers are present. https://mariavanoosterwijck.nl/oeuvre/vanitasschilderijen/a1
Vase of Tulips, Roses, and Other Flowers with Insects
Maria van Oosterwyck, 1669, oil on canvas This painting also contains some emblematic references (tulips: vanity, life and death, fly (decay) and butterfly (atalanta) (resurrection). https://mariavanoosterwijck.nl/oeuvre/bloemstillevens-boeketten/b15
Woman and Child in Courtyard
Pieter de Hooch, c.1660, oil on canvas Pieter de Hooch was a Dutch Golden Age painter famous for his genre works of quiet domestic scenes with an open doorway. He was a contemporary of Jan Vermeer in the Delft Guild of St. Luke, with whom his work shares themes and style. Pieter de Hooch excelled in the sensitive depiction of people going about their daily lives, be it inside their houses or in the sheltered environment of an urban courtyard. His masterly control of light, color, and complex perspectival construction can be compared to the work of Johannes Vermeer, his contemporary and colleague in Delft. The old town wall of Delft forms the rear wall of a courtyard in which a maidservant, carrying a jug and a laundry basket, and a small child holding a birdcage make their way to the water pump. A woman and two men enjoy some red wine in the classically inspired arbor against the back wall. The same arbor, wall, and steps occur in two other De Hooch paintings, but the variations in composition confirm that the artist freely altered the architectural elements. It is unlikely that the courtyard scenes represent an actual location, but they are clearly based on views from the backyards of the houses on the west side of the Oude Gracht in Delft where De Hooch and his family are thought to have resided.
Johann Winckelmann (refer to Gardner's Art Through the Ages, Chapter 26)
Published groundbreaking Reflections on the Imitation of Greek Works in Painting and Sculpture. In this treatise, the German scholar unequivocally designated Greek art as the most perfect to come from human hands. For Winckelmann, classical art was far superior to the "natural" art of his day.
*Rachel Ruysch, Flowerpiece
Rachel Ruysch, c.1710-15?, oil on canvas As living objects that soon die, flowers, particularly cut blossoms, appeared frequently in vanitas paintings. However, floral painting as a distinct genre also enjoyed great popularity in the Dutch Republic because the Dutch were the leading growers and exporters of flowers in 17th-century Europe. One of the major practitioners of flower painting was Rachel Ruysch, who from 1708 to 1716 served as court painter to the elector Palatine (the ruler of the Palatinate, a former division of Bavaria) in Düsseldorf, Germany. Ruysch's father was a professor of botany and anatomy, which may account for her interest in and knowledge of plants and insects. She acquired an international reputation for her lush paintings and was able to charge very high prices for her work. Flower paintings were very popular in the Dutch republic. ruysch achieved international renown for her lush paintings of floral arrangements, noted also for their careful compositions. In this canvas, the lavish floral arrangement is so full, many of the blossoms seem to be spilling out of the vase. How- ever, Ruysch's floral still lifes are not pictures of real floral arrangements, but idealized groupings of individually studied flowers, often combining perfect specimens of flowers that bloomed at different times of the year and could never be placed on a table at the same time. Her careful composition of the individual elements in the illustrated example is evident in her arrangement of the flowers to create a diagonal running from the lower left to the upper right corner of the canvas, offsetting the opposing diagonal of the table edge.
French Revolution
The revolution that began in 1789, overthrew the absolute monarchy of the Bourbons and the system of aristocratic privileges, and ended with Napoleon's overthrow of the Directory and seizure of power in 1799. The revolution of 1789 initiated a new era in France, but the overthrow of the monarchy also opened the door for Napoleon Bonaparte (1769-1821) to exploit the resulting disarray and establish a different kind of monarchy with himself at its head.
Jean-Jacques Rousseau
The second key figure of the French Enlightenment, who was also instrumental in preparing the way ideologically for the French Revolution. Argued for a return to natural values and exalted the simple, honest life of peasants. His ideas had a profound impact on such artists as Jean-Baptiste-siméon Chardin and Jean-Baptiste Greuze, who painted sentimental narratives about rural families.
