dutch art midterms

dutch revolt (year, cause)

• riots and iconoclasms in 1566

• Developed into full scale rebellion against authority of catholic monarch, philip II of Spain

• In 1648 the republic achieved official and international recognition as a sovereign state

• It split the Low Countries into the free North (Netherlands) and the Spanish-controlled South (Belgium)

• Lacked a monarch, led by the princes of orange

motivation for the iconoclasts

• Frans hogenberg, the calvinist iconoclastic riots of august 1566, 1588 (print)

• Philip II of Spain tried to eradicate protestanism in the low countries (severe religious repression)

• imposed heavy taxes to fund wars

• Iconoclasm is not about the art itself, the real target is the political and religious structure of the city

• Iconoclasm in 1566 is the opening volley of the Dutch revolt, against the roman catholic spanish king, philip II

what is calvinism

• roots in the reformation(s) that swept through the Low Countries during the sixteenth century

• God is immaterial, transcendent, abstract, beyond human understanding

• You cannot attempt to capture or represent god in human form

  • If you do that you are demeaning the majesty of god

• For John Calvin, the problem isn’t necessarily art but rather people

  • The improper interaction or viewing of god, where people are mistaking images for something divine

  • Does not condone iconoclasm

• Writings of calvin become the new doctrine for protestants

• Karel van Mander, The Lives of the Illustrious Netherlandish and German painters, 1604

• Biographies of northern european artists 

• Writes about how iconoclasm impacts the artist

  • brought little good

  • Artists saw their own works destroyed and the famous historical works of their predecessors, artistic traditions being ruptured

  • Have to redefine art and its place in their society

how did artists adapt after iconoclasm

• had to make art that survives within protestant distrust for iconography 

  • Ambiguous works allow artists to make a living while not offending anyone

• Iconoclasm makes artists aware of risks of making art, forcing artists to adapt and specialize 

  • Landscape, still life, etc

• Beginning of dutch realism (“the visible world” by samuel van hoogstraten) 

  • But not for the church, rather for people’s homes

what did hoogstraten write in “the visible world”

• Repeats that idolatry is not the fault of the artist, and not the work of art that should be blamed

• Works of art are just paint

• It is just foolish viewers, when the viewer doesn’t understand any better, that is where idolatry starts

• Iconoclasm is not the answer, rather, the beholder has to learn to reconduct themselves

• Dirck de Bray, People in a Book and Art Shop, ca. 1620–1640

• After iconoclasm:

  • growth of open market paintings, specialized types of realistic paintings (things of the visible world) appeal to a broad group of people

  • private art collecting is on the rise, the plunder of iconoclasm poured into private galleries

  • Art is now valued primarily for its aesthetic values, rather than religious purpose

• Peeter Neeffs, Collector’s Cabinet, 1652

• Paintings are no longer just religious or used in religious contexts 

• Hung there to be appreciated as works of art - big shift

• Frans Francken, An Artist in his Workshop, c.1604

• In the back, the artist and two potential clients

• Frans Francken, The Cabinet of a Collector with iconoclastic donkeys, 1617

  • Contrasting a client’s private collection with scene of the iconoclasts (bottom right)

  • New vision of iconoclasm in early 17th c. - being represented as a mistake (figures with donkey heads), overly governed by their passions

  • People beginning to desire peace and stability after war and trauma of iconoclasts

what were the two contrasting responses to art after the iconoclasts

• Left- Frans Francken, The Cabinet of a Collector with iconoclastic donkeys, 1617

  • overly passionate, destructive response

• Right- Frans Francken, An Artist in his Workshop, c.1604

  • preferred response to art

  • potential clients discussing intellectually, from an elite group of society (now the target audience) 

  • distanced

what could the javanese kris or pamor mean

• exotic, curiosity

• Not a christian deity, europeans see it as an idol and heresy 

• Loses its power of its cultural context when it gets looted 

• When we see the kris, we should remember the real reason why europeans are interested in other cultures

• Idolatry becomes a way for Europeans to demonize the cultures of the people whose natural resources they want

third response to art: Idolatry- pagan, sinful (shift from accusing protestants to non-european) 

how did the studio and market interact after the iconoclasms

• Collapse of church patronage and rise of an open art market

• making art = inseparable from selling art

  • but growing separation between the place where art is made (the studio) and where it is exchanged and valued (the market).

  • Making and marketing are distinct activities but directly influence one another

• Expansion of open art markets reduced reliance on single patrons

• self-portraits = branding tools to assert status and authorship

• Art is valued more for aesthetic pleasure, skill, and collectability than for religious instruction

• Prints functioned as a mass-distribution tool, spreading an artist’s name beyond local markets

• Cabinet house of petronella de la court, late 17th c. 

  • The opening of the home as a space for art

  • Petronella de la court would be the curator 

  • Dollhouse curiosity, not for children but for elite crowds

  • Ideal, elite dutch home

  • Represents a very high end collection

identify. what is rembrandt doing?

• Rembrandt, Self Portrait with Arm on a Ledge, 1640

  • Put together raphael (left) and titian (right) to get rembrandt

• What is Rembrandt doing

  • Appealing to what the city is fascinated with (italian art) 

  • Emulating these artists (signing)

  • Imitating elite male portrait role, enhancing his own social status

  • Turning italian art dutch at the same time

  • Marketing himself to be in the same league as Raphael and titian

• Job Berckheyde, Baker Blowing His Horn, 1681

  • Local culture (horn), comic culture, relatable

  • baker= artisanal labor, attention and devotion to craft

  • Everyone can imagine the taste, smell, texture of bread, hearing the horn, watching the scene- all five senses are engaged

• Artists came from the artisan working sector, middle class

• Jan van de Capelle, Calm, 1650-55

  • Collector, patron, lover of art, amateur painter

  • Didn’t have to paint for money

  • Romantic vision 

compare pieter de hooch’s delft and amsterdam works

• left - Pieter de Hooch, Card Players, 1660s (Amsterdam)

• right - Pieter de Hooch, A Woman Drinking with Two Men, c. 1658 (Delft)

  • De Hooch from city of Delft, moves to amsterdam

  • More luxurious than the humble delft piece

  • Due to change of consumer tastes, preference for italian art

• Each city has a local school of artists but they all make that move to amsterdam at some point

what is lastman and rembrandt’s connection?

• Pieter Lastman, The Triumph of Mordecai, 1624

• Rembrandt came from a wealthy miller’s family in Leiden, was able to go to latin school

  • Opened the doors to university (Leiden was the only city with university) 

  • Most artists did not have a wealthy background or university training

  • Apprentices as an artist in Leiden, then moves to Amsterdam specifically to work with pieter lastman

• Ostade, Painter in his Studio, 1663

• Artist process: 

  • If a boy showed potential, parents would pay a fee for a master artist to take him on as an apprentice

  • At first, help organize and clean studio, prepare/stretch canvases

  • Draw by copying from master’s work, then inanimate objects, then live animals and people

  • Graduate to paint, same subject ladder

  • Help the master paint

  • After two or three years, apply to guild by presenting them with a masterpiece

  • the guild will judge it and allow you in or not

• Vermeer, Christ in the House of Mary and Martha, 1654

  • Bible stories wouldn’t be in the church but in the private home

• History painting was considered the most prestigious, intellectual, because it was based on classical text which you had to read and interpret

  • Time consuming

  • If you master history painting you master all 

  • Vermeer, lastmann

• Rembrandt, Jan Six, 1654

  • Rembrandt made his name as a portrait painter

• Rough style taken from italian roughness

• Portraiture highly in demand - sign of status

  • Socially elevating, appealing to people with a lot of art knowledge

  • Nouveau riche climbing upwards

  • Surer steadier income for rembrandt

• networking - he is climbing in society

• patricians at the top of Dutch society, whose attentions Rembrandt eventually does attract

• Jan van Goyen, Dunes, c. 1630

  • Specialization: focused on dunes

  • Not terribly expensive - limited use of pigment, less details in skyscape, paints wet on wet

  • treating rough subjects with a rough style

  • the opposite of Jan Brueghel, Garden of Eden, 1612

• Jan Brueghel, Garden of Eden, 1612

  • Much more expensive - tiny brushes

  • not rough style

  • the opposite of Jan van Goyen, Dunes, c. 1630

• Rembrandt, The Three Trees, 1643

  • Labor intensive when you first carve the plate for engraving

  • Once the plate is engraved you can do hundreds of impressions which can become widely circulated

• You can have different states of the same etching

  • Small differences- foreground figures gone, figure on right shadowed, etc. 

  • Collectors would try to collect all the different states of an engraving - another way for artists to make money

• Rembrandt, Joseph and Potiphar’s wife, 1655

• Rembrandt doesn’t specialize in one type of subject like van goyen or one medium, but he has a signature style

  • Dark, tonal, dramatic- seen with the etchings as well as the paintings

  • Spotlit sections, gesture, emotions, costumes like theatre- a narrative is present

  • Chiaroscuro - shadows and light, similar to caravaggio 

  • Lines are soft, contours are blended

  • Earthy tones with bright colors

• Man with the Golden Helmet, c. 1650 (Berlin)

• Possibly rembrandt 

• Carries his style 

• “The rough style” - another way to attribute

• Textured, getting in there with his hands, possibly a fingerprint

• Not-Rembrandt (?) The Polish Rider, 1655 (Frick, NYC)

  • No longer certain 

  • The popularity of Rembrandt's style creates a market, which fosters imitation

• Pupil of Rembrandt, Drawing from the Nude in Rembrandt’s studio, c.1645-50

• the training of apprentices includes copying the master’s work and therefore his style

  • Rembrandt would have been running less of a studio and more of an academy

  • More theoretical approach, more systemized, more of an intellectual component

  • A little more prestigious than a regular apprenticeship 

  • different than most dutch artists at the time

• Every 17th c work is collaborative, as the master and pupil would both have their hand in the piece, but masters would get the credit

• Aert de Gelder, Self Portrait

  • One of Rembrandt's students

  • Most went on to continue to emulate his style, few developed their own 

• Aert de Gelder, Portrait of a Boy, 1700

• One of Rembrandt's students

• Saturating the market with your style = falling out of style

• Late time for Rembrandt's style

• Gerrit Dou, Self Portrait, 1665

  • Contrast to the “rough style” of rembrandt 

  • This is considered the “smooth style,” fijnschilder

  • Dou trained with rembrandt in leiden 

  • May have painted with the aid of a magnifying glass

• Another dou work

  • Greek/classical focus of virtuosity on mundane things- revived in dutch republic

  • Turn to secular subjects, everyday life

  • Dou’s work could fetch a higher price than Rembrandt because it took him much longer to make his 

• Patrons were preferable to the open market

  • First right of refusal- first dibs on finished paintings

• Adriaen Brouwer, Peasants Fighting, 1631

• “Rough style” because peasants are the subject

• Adriaen Brouwer, Bitter Drink, c. 1635

  • Rough style

  • Brushstrokes are evident

  • Local pride, local identity of being the rough people, underdogs who won a war against spain

  • Appealed to middle class locals

  • Tronie

• Titian (rape of europa) was also famously a rough painter

  • Incompleteness allows audience to fill in the rest

  • More “intellectual” style- meanings are open ended, open to interpretation

  • Appeals to international art collectors 

• Judith Leyster, Self Portrait, 1635

  • Her father was an artist so she could train with her family

  • Women could be trained as part of the family business

  • Women born into nobility could be tutored in various skills including artmaking

  • Possibly she needed to work to help support the family

  • She does become part of the guild and trains male apprentices

• we see how a woman portrays a woman

  • Lively, animated, more like isaac massa 

  • Speaking portrait

  • fairly radical

  • Saying something specific about her social role as an artist and a woman

• Jan Molenaer, Painter in His Studio, 1631

  • Husband of judith leyster

  • Two painters in the scene, one painting the main painting, the other on the left side

  • A scene of production, where in the studio the artist has models that are dressed up and posed

  • But the actual painting doesn’t match reality

  • Behind the door, a third easel- a third painting? 

  • You can enter the space through three different angles

  • Another meta painting- a painting about how paintings are made

• The case with most dutch art- gives the viewer multiple possible solutions

• The artist has created a puzzle that viewers can interpret in different ways

• Paintings turn into conversations

• "Woman Buying Paintings at a Shop" from The Ten Delights of Marriage, last quarter 17th c.

  • Making fun of women spending all their husbands money on art

  • But the joke alone proves that women did in fact buy art and collect it

  • A lot of female participation in the art and dealer world

• Quirijn Brekelenkam, The Tailor’s Workshop, 1660s

  • Artisan class group

• Most dutch homes did contain some paintings

  • A typical middle class home might have about 10 paintings in it

  • Lower middle class homes might have a few simple paintings

  • Works on paper in lower class homes because it’s less expensive

• Travelers to the Dutch republic would comment on the fact that all people could have paintings - unusual 

• Creates a place of art appreciation, discussion, exhibition within the home

  • Becomes part of everyday life and experience in dutch cities

  • In england it’s the theatre, in holland it’s the visual culture

what were the pictorial forms before portraits

• pictorial form that was created usually on commission to represent a specific individual (tronie, conterfeytsel) 

• Tronie - head, character head, a study of a face, an artist doing an exercise in a type, a caricature

• Conterfeytsel - image created from life, sometimes accompanying the name of a person

• Afbeeldingh - representation, occasionally associated with name of specific individual

how were portraits an expression of aristocratic values

• more than expression of bourgeois realism and individualism after the Dutch Revolt- strong link with earlier aristocratic values

  • Traditional theory linked portraiture to nobility, defined by illustriousness, virtue, fame, service to the state, and ars (learning and skill), not merely by birth

• Nobility = claim to sovereignty, transcendence, and immortality

  • Noble title and portrait = signs of self sovereignty and justified immortality (through portrayal) 

• Portrait realism = naturalize desired status positions as accomplished facts

• Amsterdam’s elite saw themselves as comparable to Venice or ancient city-states, justifying noble-style self-representation.

  • Amsterdam regents adapting aristocratic imagery to civic power, without noble blood

• Interior virtues (intelligence, constancy, genius) became foundations of bourgeoisie

• Rembrandt, Nicolaes Ruts, 1631

  • Rembrandt starts making a name for himself by working for the mennonites/anabaptists  

  • Entering a business deal with this man through his portrait

  • Showing social relationships through trade and commerce

  • Introducing social mobility- you can climb the ladder without being born into the aristocracy model

  • Middle class is in between aristocracy and peasants, able to move through commerce and industry

compare and contrast rembrandt’s nicolaes ruts (left) and cornelis van der voort’s laurens reael (right)

• Both are merchants, not aristocratic men

• Ruff- expensive fabric, showing wealth

• What they’re holding conveys what they do 

• Rembrandt has a blank background, pushing him into our space because we have no sense of his

• More informal, trustworthy merchant

• Van der Voot has red drapery, calling up association with aristocratic portraiture (sword, helmet, pose), stiffness

• Cornelis van der Voort, Laurens Reael, c. 1620 (left) 

  • Governor general of the dtch east india trading company

• Unknown, Suzanna Moor, c. 1629 (right)

  • his second wife

• Enormous wealth and power

• East India company was considered a sovereign power when overseas

• Using marriage portraiture to show their sovereignty - hierarchy of domination and subordination 

• Rubens, Earl of Arundel, c. 1630

  • Rubens and Rembrandt are contemporaries

  • Earl is one of the highly ranked aristocrats in england

  • Military representative of the king

  • Similarities with laurens reael- full armor, red drapery, sword and the stick

• Rembrandt, Marten Looten, 1632

  • Marten was probably an associate of Nicholaes Ruts, both were part of the mennonites

  • Similar style to rembrandt’s ruts portrait

  • Rembrandt starts to create a network that way, by painting portraits and word of mouth through wealthy groups of traders

• Portraits don’t have a high resale value

  • Least liquid form of art

  • Tend to stay in the family

  • People valued portraits for its actual content, showcasing illustrious family rather than its actual monetary value

• Rembrandt, Old Man in Military Costume, 1630

  • Tronie

  • Paintings that look like portraits but aren’t

  • Not every picture of a face is a portrait

  • Overly costumed, less masculinity, a bit of mockery

  • This face shows up in other Rembrandt paintings, man was more likely a model 

• Jan Lievens, Man in “Eastern” Costume, 1628

  • tronie

  • Lievens and rembrandt were frenemies

  • Dutch man posing as a turkish (ottoman) man

  • Costume, accessories, setting that tell us more about the identity rather than the face 

  • More of a theatrical performance

what are tronies

• often representing a group or quality (old age, poverty), ethnicity, racialized 

• Trying to make social differences noticeable

• Categorizing people

• Frans Hals, Gypsy Girl 1628

  • tronie

  • Rough style for rough subject matter

  • Who is valued in this society and who is not

• Frans Hals, Isaac Massa, 1626

  • Different type of rough painting than rembrandt

  • More brushy impressionist style

  • Massa is a successful silk merchant, special envoy to Moscow, high ranking person

  • Not the same type of portrait as aristocracy

  • Intellectual, innovative

  • Quickness, spontaneity, communicating with us

  • “Speaking portrait”

  • Pushing boundaries of convention

  • Appealing to the type of the art collector where the viewer completes the painting, engaging with the subject and artist

• Frans Hals, Feyntje van Steenkiste, 1635

  • Pendant pairs, often husband and wife

  • For a woman, the collaboration wouldn’t be the sitter (woman) and artist, it would be her husband and the artist

  • So the husband dictates her identity 

  • Compared to massa, his body is open and free, meanwhile she is controlled and a non speaking portrait

  • Men have a role in their portrait- business, trade, etc. but she has no autonomous role besides being a wife

  • Portraits don’t show that real person, just who she should be

• One of two ideals of femininity - wife

  • Ideal woman: closed mouth, closed body, enclosed in the home

  • Modest, sober, protestant 

  • Often gloves in marriage portraits - modesty and a hint of sexuality but only in regards to her husband

• Van Dyck, Diana Cecil, Countess of Oxford 1638

  • A bit more desirable but still modest

  • Not explicitly inside the home - in proximity to the land, so she has family land = status

  • Aristocratic marriage is often about the consolidation of land and property, not so much about domestic duties

  • Pale skin (leisure), jewelry 

• one of two ideals of femininity- aristocratic

• Frans Hals, Lucas de Clercq, 1635

  • Merchant portrait pair rather than aristocratic or upper class

• Rembrandt, Cornelis Claesz Anslo and his wife Aeltje Gerritsdr. Schouten, 1641

  • Anslo is mennonite preacher (religious leader) and wealthy merchant

  • Mennonite persecution ended by 17th c. and now quite a wealthy group with their own church

  • Power dynamic- head of the household instructing the wife, sermoning, obedience 

  • The man is the medium for the bible or the book, transferring the illumination (candle) to her

  • Companionate marriage - as long as she was obedient, then the partnership would work

• Rubens, Henry IV Receiving the Portrait of His Wife, Marie de’ Medici, 1621-1625

  • How an aristocratic marriage as portrayed

  • Jupiter and Juno - divinely sanctioned

  • Classical, mythological

  • Henry IV did not want to marry her, was in love with someone else

  • Diplomatic negotiation and/or alliance- and that is more aristocratic issue in comparison to peasant marriages

  • Not too different from the brothel scene, choosing a woman based on her exterior 

• Johannes Verspronck, Portraits of a Man and a Woman, 1640

  • Typical, conventional marriage pendant pair

  • Open vs closed body language

  • Man is on the left and woman is on the right:

    • partly going back to family coats of arms where man’s family is on the left and woman’s is on the right,

    • reading from left to right, man has more of a diagonal line that leads our eyes to her (and her womb)

    • meet him first and he introduces us to his wife

  • Man’s face is in shadow = more interiority and intellect being alluded to

• Rembrandt, Agatha Bas and Nicolas van Bambeeck 1641

  • experimental portrait of agatha

  • She’s open, facing us, almost coming out of her inner frame to meet us

    • Husband is a little more set back and in the shadows

  • Trompe d’oeil 

  • She looks more complex, shadowed, not quite the stereotype of the protestant wife

  • Claim to the more aristocratic sovereign status, her father is dutch east india so she is almost higher ranked than her husband

    • Somewhere between the aristocratic woman and the upper class woman

    • Possibly her father painted the portrait

• Frans Hals, Isaac Massa and Beatrix van der Laen, 1622

  • Playful, companionship, affectionate, appealing or romantic

    • Massas are more international, cosmopolitan 

  • Marriage portrait possibly

  • She was a daughter of a regent, upper echelons of the middle class

    • She is closest to the land, not in the enclosed spaces = she is probably bringing family land and wealth to their portrait

  • Ivy vine, more conventional element = he is the tree and she hangs on him, the tree is supporting the ivy

    • ivy = visual metaphor for love and marriage

what did jacob cats write in houwelick (marriage), 1625?

• The best selling book in the dutch republic by 15th c. 

• Lays out the ideals of marriage

• Targeting both female and male readership (increased literacy among higher class women) 

• Cats was the grand pensionary of the dutch republic

  • most important political office, like prime minister (rep. gov., the states general) 

  • Sinister- someone at the top of the country is writing about the domestic roles and ideals

• Studio of Rembrandt, Jan Pellicorne and his son Gaspar, 1634 (left)

• Susanna van Collen and her daughter Anna, 1634 (right)

  • Family portrait

  • “A rich man's wish” one son and one daughter

  • one son to hand the entire fortune to, one daughter to take care of them when they’re old/make a marriage connection

  • Pellicorne was a director of east india company

• Dutch republic was less of a republic or democracy than it was an oligarchy

• small “in” group of ruling families who basically lock down the power in the state and its government

  • Not aristocracy

  • Roman verisitc (truthful) patrician portraiture 

• Bartholomeus van der Helst, Portrait of Andries Bicker, 1642

  • bicker- most powerful man in Amsterdam for the first half of 17th c., head of the oligarchy, director of the east india company

  • Drawing from the roman patrician portraiture

  • Wise, sober, protestant ideal of power

  • Stoicism - constancy amongst chaos, control over oneself, reason over passion

  • Aspiring towards aristocratic identity- doesn’t have aristocratic birth but it’s his wisdom and traits that make him legit 

  • Marriage portrait- he governs the state, she governs the home, the ruler and citizen- ideal microcosm 

  • Bicker is constructed as a “city-father,” and Tengnagel’s virtue confirms his sovereignty.

what did hugo grotius write in introduction to dutch jurisprudence, 1621?

• From the regent group

• Treatise that provides a legal status that men have over women, children, property

• Dutch law is crafted to protect interests of ruling class group

• Imbeds in the law that men are inherently more fit to rule

• Marriage does not grant legal status to women, they are not sovereigns and they have no autonomy

• Daniel Vertangen, Portrait of Jan Valckenburgh and an Enslaved Servant, c. 1660 (left) 

• Vertangen, Portrait of Dina Lems, Wife of Jan Valckenburgh, c. 1660 (right)

  • Back to aristocratic style of portrait - cane (judicial power), hand on hip, curtain, pedestal, helmet (military prowess), sword 

  • Valckenburgh is not actually his name- enobling himself with a new name as he marries up 

  • He also has a second life in Africa, Elmina fortress 

  • Double standard about wisdom, virtue, etc. 

  • Enslaved person is more of a tronie, an “africanized” generic type

  • Showing the enslaved person = still showing sovereignty, but global and racial sovereignty 

    • After the dutch capture elmina they become a driving force for the transatlantic slave trade, overtaking the portuguese 

    • Dutch sovereignty was built on atrocity (elmina dungeons)

• Rembrandt, Oopjen Coppit, 1634

  • Another pendant pairing

  • High status woman

  • Her family made their fortune from sugar refining

• Hals, Family in a Landscape, c. 1645

• Unknown family

  • possibly director general of west india company based on appearance of enslaved figure

• Complicity

• Normalization of the enslaved person’s presence 

• Evidence of a free black community in amsterdam- reason why some portraits of black people do seem more like individuals than tronie portraits

• Peter Paul Rubens, Rubens and Isabella Brandt in a Honeysuckle Bower, c. 1609

  • Self portrait

  • Rubens has an aristocratic background and always portrays himself in that way

  • Typical aristocratic portrait

  • Contrast to Rembrandt's marriage portrait

• Rembrandt and Saskia, c. 1635

  • Rembrandt’s self marriage portrait

  • She’s on the left and higher up- possibly because she’s higher status

  • Very informal, kind of like a tavern scene

  • Similar to a soldier? Soldiers often paired with prostitutes

  • Lower class type of representation

  • Shock value

• Using the face to show specific emotional states, experimenting with his own face

  • To build up his repertoire of emotions 

what is the myth of the artist

• Don’t accept the myth of the artist as the truth of the artist

• “Rebel” is not always true, even if the rough style advertises this (rembrandt)

• Roleplay because it has an appeal in the dutch republic

• A kind of theatre in it- middle class has more social mobility as he tries on different faces and different roles

• Creating an artistic persona, self fashioning himself

• There’s no bad publicity- everything is marketable

Dou, The Quack, c. 1652

• Self portrait, student of rembrandt

• Quack doctor- someone selling others phony medicine (oftentimes merchants) 

• How is the artist like the quack doctor? 

  • Another take on artistic identity

  • The artist is on the market, selling something that is quite deceptive, and they are self aware of the fact that it’s not real- so if you are tricked, it’s your fault

  • People want to be deceived, enjoy it

  • Motif of trapping a bird- trying to trap the viewer into believing an illusion

  • Meta paintings

  • Comic culture

• Pieter Claesz, Vanitas Still Life, c. 1630

  • both a still life and self portrait

  • Fleeting, ephemeral vanity of material things, don’t put too much value in earthly things

  • painting is a performative act

  • Like molanaer, the artist sets a scene in the studio then paints it (production of art) which takes place in time (ephemeral) but then once the painting is done we don’t see that process anymore

  • Claesz is showing both the product and (in a more meta painting way) the moment of labor and creation 

  • Still life - the idea that art freezes life itself

  • Skull = mortality, every life only lasts so long

  • Pocketwatch = clockmaking is sort of new and experimental in the dutch republic, passing of earthly time is measured out

  • Violin = music only lasts as long as you hear it, the temporality of music vs the enduring life of a painting

  • Oil lamp = flame has gone out

  • Books = preserved ideas

  • Glass reflecting orb, bubble = showing himself in the act of painting the still life in a distorted, mirrored surface

• Clara Peeters, Still Life, 1611

  • Marketing the work to art lovers and collectors

  • Some items are enduring (metal and glass), some are ephemeral (flowers) 

  • Flowers in all stages of blooming

  • Her self portrait is in the metal

  • Sidestepping problem of images of women- we don’t see her body

• Clara Peeters, Still Life, 1612

  • Transience

    • But her artistry, on the other hand, is enduring

  • She reflects herself as the artist

    • The artist stands in the place where the viewer will stand eventually

    • She also makes herself the subject, by adding her reflection

  • She is the subject, viewer, and artist all at once

• Samuel Van Hoogstraten, Trompe l’oeil, 1664

  • Gold chain = sign of status

  • Pointing to his fame, status, success as an artist

  • Highly educated

• Vermeer, The Art of Painting, c. 1665

  • Is the artist vermeer?

    • Not exactly a self portrait

• Most likely a historical painter, 16th c. painter

  • His clothing is more 16th c. clothing

  • Map shows the low countries, the Netherlands, before the war divides into north and south, shows all 17 provinces united

  • Hapsburg empire is on the top of the chandelier

• Painting about the history of art, specifically in the low countries

  • self reflective painting

  • In spite of the image wars and iconoclams, this has always been an artistic region and the practice of painting continues in spite of everything

• Parrhasios and zeuxis - illusion

• The woman is holding a book and trumpet, with a laurel wreath on her head

  • personifying clio, the muse of history

• Samuel van Hoogstraten, View down a corridor, 1662

  • Illusion of continuing corridor

  • Viewer = seated in front of us

    • We are somewhat of a voyeur, spying on people in their own homes

  • Theme of interruption- animals are startled, they see the viewer first

  • Perspective that projects forward, depth

  • Dog on threshold = ancient roman mosaics, “cave canem,” beware of the dog

  • Cleaned, moral and virtuous space

    • No claims of aristocracy for middle class, so it becomes the notions of virtue that are so important to the structure of society = keeping a proper home

  • Why is the woman entertaining the man in the home, is that the husband, raises ambiguity 

• Samuel van Hoogstraten, Peep Box, 1655-60

  • Another microcosm

  • Inside is painted

  • Sophisticated play with light and optics

  • Anamorphosis - connected to linear perspective to make that illusion of depth, takes into account the viewing angle

  • Only 6 of those boxes survived, only 5 are domestic interiors

• Gerrit van Honthorst, Procuress, 1622

  • Theme we see quite a lot- prostitution 

  • Desirable young woman, often with a musical instrument

  • Sex work was organized by women who ran the brothel, the procuress 

• Dirck Van Baburen, The Concert, 1620s (left)

• Van Baburen, The Procuress, 1622 (right)

• Merrymaking, etc. 

• Stock comic characters

• Theatricality 

• Sometimes scenes of prostitution are given the title the prodigal son

• Ter Brugghen, Unequal Couple, 1623

  • An old man and young woman

  • People smiling with their teeth are only lower class people in comic scenes

  • We’re in on the joke with her

    • desire is never sated as long as the mind desires art

    • We assume the viewer is a male looking to spend his money on a painting

  • We assume the man in impotent, so his desire is stirred up but will never be satisfied

  • Making fun of human sinfulness and immorality 

• There is a market for this kind of risque art, that the calvinists wouldn’t have liked

• But the church doesn’t control the private collections

• Dirck Hals, Merry Company, 1630s

  • Similar to prodigal son scene

  • Less theatrical, less comic

  • Sober dress and fashion of the middle classes

  • Ambiguity- is it a proper middle class home or a brothel? 

• Vermeer, The Procuress, 1656

  • Same kind of cast of characters as the other procuress paintings

  • The procuress, client, prostitute, and possibly Vermeer himself looking at the viewer 

  • The joke about money for pleasure

    • The man is paying his client for pleasure

    • But if you’re the viewer you’re paying vermeer for your own pleasure

  • His teeth are showing while laughing

• Vermeer, Girl asleep at a table, 1657

  • As if someone just left 

  • Possibly drunk because they were drinking

  • Hard to discern what type of woman this is and what type of home this is

  • brothel?

• Jan Vermeer, Woman with a Water Jug, 1658-60

• Wealthy middle class home

•  Crispness of the linen

• Expensive because of the amount of blue being used

• Pure, clean, virtuous home and woman

• Small painting= physical drawing in of the audience

• Jan Vermeer, Lace Maker, 1665

• Household task

• Pushing us in with the details

• A lot of foreground, blocking us, pushing us back, prevents us from fully entering her space

• No man- when a man enters the space it throws it off and makes us wonder why he’s there

• Women confined in the boundaries in the home = boundaries of the female body

• The work secures her- virtuous, doing her work, she is not inviting us to look

• When women are idle, it becomes more open to morality questions

• Content and confined to her domestic space and tasks- the ideal housewife

• Judith Leyster, Proposition, 1631

  • Man like in the brothel scenes, holding a handful of coins

  • She is remaining intent on her task, not allowing him to intrude on her

  • Viewer too (assuming male) is blocked by her labor, protecting her from unwanted attention 

  • Female painter makes us identify with her uncomfortable position

what is domestic realism

• Described by paintings in the 1650s and 1660s

  • New kind of genre painting pioneered by ter Borsch

• Activities of morally ambiguous significance

  • Domestic or domestic like interiors

  • Shared with youg man of soldier like appearance

  • Domestic scenes of sexual negotiation? 

  •  ter Borch's Paternal Admonition

• Private space and the home is a separate female domain

  • Themes of anxiety of women’s behavior, sexuality, etc.

  • Interrpution, voyeurism

• Dutch taste for painting the ordinary and its violation

• Even the most virtuous woman always seems on the verge of becoming a soldier’s whore 

  • Meaning the nation itself is imagined as fragile, seducible, threatened

explain lack of male householders in domestic realism

• If they do appear, painting is likely to shift categories from genre to portrait

  • With householder there, morally ambiguous scene becomes static and respectable

  • Women, servants, soldiers “act”; householders merely “are”

• Shift- soldiers can no longer be kept separate from respectable dutch society

  • Coming into domestic spaces

  • Differences between brothel vs burgher home, whore vs wife becomes increasingly difficult to find

  • Worldliness vs domestic order

• Vermeer, Servant pouring Milk, 1660s

• Unusual painting of female servant

• Dutch nationalistic tendencies - local woman with local product

• Not so much a global trading hub but a dutch dairy hub

• Rougher fabric, skin

• Vermeer has a rough style or fine style depending on his subject