Still life with cheese

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Still life with cheese (Floris van Dyck)
Still life with cheese
Floris van Dyck , around 1615
oil on wood
82.5 x 111.2 cm
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

Still Life with Cheese is a painting by the Dutch artist Floris van Dyck , who is considered to be an essential founder of the early Dutch meal still life - also known as the Haarlem display boards . It is dated to around 1615–1620 and measures 82.5 × 111.2 cm. The technique is oil paint that has been applied to a wooden panel. The title of the painting is not a designation by the artist himself, but a subsequent title.

Cultural and historical background

Floris van Dyck , Still Life with Cheese, 1613, Frans Hals Museum, Haarlem

The picture is exemplary of Dutch still life painting in the 17th century, when many painters specialized in a certain genre and perfected the specialization within the genre itself. For example, a whole range of still lifes with flowers and fruits or the banquet jes , to which this picture is one, was created, often in several only slightly different versions of the same subject. The theme of this picture also exists in several variants, one of them in the Frans-Hals-Museum in Haarlem .

There was a lucrative and flourishing market for this kind of image in the Dutch Golden Age , when the Republic of the Seven United Netherlands became the leading trading and economic nation. The turn to the representation of everyday things ( still life , genre painting , Dutch landscapes , etc.) can also be explained by Calvinism and the iconoclasts associated with it. Catholic subjects were outlawed, but in the Northern Netherlands there was still a demand for art, in particular for paintings to beautify living spaces. The buyers of the pictures were the rich bourgeoisie. The buyers wanted to see the luxury they achieved, which allowed them to consume and accumulate exquisite equipment and expensive and over-refined food, documented in the pictures.

Formal image description

Pictorial objects

The viewer is presented with a table covered with Leiden or Haarlem damask . On this there are objects that are to be divided into two groups. One group consists of kitchen utensils and utensils and the second group consists of food. The first group includes the different glasses on the table. It is a Roman made of green glass . In the painting in the Frans Hals Museum in Haarlem there is a Berkemeyer in its place . Glass was an affordable commodity in the 17th century and was of such little value that it was not recorded in inventories. The fact that glass could also be one of the more expensive goods is proven by the imported façon de Venise glasses on the table, one of which is lying down and covered by a light-colored stoneware jug. This is a jug made of Siegburg ceramics that was imported from Germany. Chinese porcelain bowls were just as expensive and sought-after imported goods. These mostly came from the overseas trade of the VOC and are often referred to as Wanli porcelain , named after the emperor who was ruling at the time . The Chinese plates, shallow and deep bowls, although they were later copied on a large scale by the Delft porcelain factories, remained expensive and popular pieces of household treasure. A further increase in value occurs through the metal plate and the knife in the picture. Such dishes made of fine metal such as pewter or silver are probably among the most valuable objects within the arrangement draped on the table. The second group of objects is a collection of various foods. The red and yellow apples gathered in a large bowl and the light and dark grapes, served on smaller bowls, appear as if they were freshly picked . There are green olives in another plate . Not served in dishes, but spread over the table, there are still open and closed nuts , baked goods in the form of small rolls and a single pear . These are fruits and foodstuffs that could be bought in abundance at the city market or that grew on their own trees in the garden. The olives are an exception, as they were imported to the Netherlands from the Mediterranean region today . That makes them, like all imported goods on the table, one of the more expensive objects. One last food deserves special attention - cheese . This is stacked on top of each other in huge, differently colored loaves. These are presented on a precious plate in the center of the picture. The meaning of cheese in Dutch paintings is not clear. On the one hand, it is a simple agricultural product and an essential staple food . On the other hand, the cheese increased immensely in its value with its many years of maturity and was even recorded in inventories . The rear edge cannot be seen due to the closely spaced objects and / or due to the diffuse light in the rear part of the painting. The situation is similar with the side borders of the table. The background is an unlit and undesigned area. A look at the other few paintings by Floris van Dyck and Nicolaes Gillis reveals a clear trend. The repertoire of objects can be supplemented by a few, such as bowls with sugar biscuits, other fruits (e.g. lemons ), screw cups or nautilus cups . The concept of the objects is always the same. The metal plates, Chinese bowls with fruit or the focus on the stack of cheese loaves are never missing.

composition

In the painting to be viewed, the objects are arranged in three different rows. In the first row are objects such as the bowl with grapes, the Roman, the plate with olives and the stoneware jug. A special element of the first row is the metal plate with the hanging apple peel, which is pushed a little over the front edge of the table and thus draws the eye as a trompe l'oeil motif. In the second row there are objects that tower above those in the first row, such as the large Chinese bowl with the apples and the stack of cheese placed in the center of the picture. In the back row, two glasses can be seen, which are only visible because they are in the arrangement in gaps. The entire arrangement of the objects corresponds to a pyramidal composition, with the viewer's attention being drawn to the pile of cheese enthroned in the middle. This composition scheme seems to be programmatic for the Haarlem display boards. This arrangement experiences variations only through less defined boundaries between the individual rows of objects or the possible slightly decentralized position of the stack of cheese, whereby this still dominates the picture structure. The objects are shown in a generous plan view, which decreases the further the objects reach into the room. The composition of the objects is strict and symmetrical , despite the nuts and leftover baked goods scattered across the table. The arrangement of the objects on the board reveals the inherent horror vacui of this image conception. Although the number of objects shown is manageable, they fill most of the picture. This is done in the composition of the image by avoiding overlaps. The objects stand individually on the table without coming into direct contact with the others, or they form small arrangements with one another, such as the stoneware jug with the bread roll and the pear. In the overall view, these individual objects and small groups of objects then fit together to form an arrangement that fills the board.

colourfulness

Frans Snyders: Three monkeys steal fruit, 1640, Louvre, Paris

In terms of color, the painting by Floris van Dijck we are looking at here is in the tradition of kitchen pieces and market pictures as painted by Pieter Aertsen and Joachim Beuckelaer . All objects shown therefore have their local color . However, it must be pointed out here that the colors of the Haarlem display boards - or rather: the expressiveness of the colors - seemed to imitate the Flemish still lifes of the time. This difference is actually only noticeable when you make a direct comparison. If one compares the painting by Floris van Dyck with that of his Flemish painter colleague Frans Snyders , the difference becomes more than clear. For example, the apples in a Frans Snyder's fruit basket show a higher color intensity than the apples in the Wanli bowl in Floris van Dijck's Amsterdam painting. Martina Brunner-Bulst already sees a color that has been reduced by graduated light values. This seems to precede the changes in the use of color in the later Haarlem still lifes, which are known as Monochrome Banketjes .

Lighting control

The light source present in Floris van Dyck's painting is indirect. According to the cast shadows of the objects and also the reflections on the Römer, this is light coming from the left - presumably from a higher window. In this painting, light has two essential compositional tasks. First of all, it takes on or underlines the staggering of the picture in different levels on the table in which the objects shown were placed. This is how the front level experiences the strongest lighting. The grapes, the wine in the Roman and the apple on the silver plate can shine in their strong colors. The change in light intensity that goes along with the front edge of the table is reproduced in an absolutely deceptively real way. The second level with objects such as the Chinese bowl with apples and the tall cheese pyramid is less illuminated. Van Dijck lets the light shine just so brightly that the sliced ​​cheese, the metal plate underneath and the apples in the bowl can impress with their color and reflective properties. From the middle of the picture, the lighting changes drastically. The entire rear section of the table with objects such as another bar of cheese and two standing glasses is kept in a diffuse light and merges into the black background. It is noticeable here that only the first and second levels show a certain variation in light intensity. It is therefore not so much a question of staggering the light, but rather of intensive lighting of the front half of the table, the side boundaries of which run in such a way that they intersect at the level of the cheese pyramid. So it is possible to speak of a conscious lighting direction that aims to lead to the center of the picture. The use of light to evoke a certain mood is difficult to prove in this painting by Floris van Dyck as well as in his other works or those of his painter colleague Nicolaes Gillis . Apparently the potential of the atmospheric use of light should still be discovered. The undesigned dark surface that forms the background also proves that the possibilities for reproducing light have not yet been exhausted.

perspective

The horizon line lies above the central axis of the picture, which is why the viewer can see almost the entire table. In this way, it is almost exclusively the objects observed in precise perspective, which have the character of individual studies, that create the present spatial effect. Contrary to the laws of perception, the objects do not get smaller the further they reach into space. Floris van Dyck does not use the effect of perception, but again the light. Because this has a second essential task in addition to the staggering of the picture in different levels. It gives the illusion of a deep spatial effect . The objects in the picture are experienced as three-dimensional objects due to their nuanced and light-modeled surfaces and their ability to cast a shadow. Impressive examples here are the stoneware jug with its ornamented surface and especially the visible side of the cut cheese wheel, the different approaches of which are shown in great detail by the cheese knife. The oblique cast shadows and their partial merging with one another reinforce the impression of a spatial staggering of the objects and thus the presence of perspective. This impression is only supported by the table runner running diagonally across the table, the knife pointing into the depths of the room or the trompe l'oeil motif of the pewter plate with the hanging apple peel pushed over the edge of the table.

interpretation

Pieter Aertsen , Christ with Maria and Martha, 1552, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

The panel is cut left and right, so that the full dimensions are outside the field of vision. This makes the picture look like a section or a snapshot. However, the covered tables by Floris van Dyck and Nicolaes Gillis are not Flemish market stalls or insights into storage rooms. With these, the luxury of the piled-up food and groceries in the foreground was relativized by a scene in the background - for example Christ with Mary and Martha as a symbol of good housekeeping and moderation. In the painting, based on the interpretation of motifs in the marrow and kitchen pieces, the dried apple peel in contrast with the still fresh apples in the peel could indicate the transience of everything earthly ( vanitas motif). Furthermore, the cheese, as part of the daily diet, in contrast to the expensive and more luxurious foods, could have been understood as an admonition to be moderate. The picture message of the panels by Floris van Dyck and Nicolaes Gillis is not unambiguous, despite such suggestions for interpretation. There is not even a unanimous opinion about the guests at the table presented here. Based on the food and objects and their value, Joseph Lammers concluded that it would be used by a distinguished society. Claus Grimm said that these are display boards that are supposed to show valuable objects only to be admired. This sounds plausible in view of the fact that plates, knives and glasses are only available for one person, which actually excludes a festive banquet with several people. Certain objects on the table refer not only to the fortune of the then owner of the painting, but also to a second level of meaning. Bread and wine are symbols of the Eucharist . The nut can stand as a symbol of the divinity of Christ and its shell for the cross on which he found his death.

Provenance

The painting was acquired in 1982 by the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam with the support of the Vereniging Rembrandt, the Prins Bernhard Fond and the Rijkmuseum-Stichting. The origin before the acquisition by the Rijksmuseum is subject to anonymity.

literature

reference books

Monographs and exhibition catalogs

  • Ingvar Bergström: Dutch still-life painting in the seventeenth century . Translated from the Swedish by Christina Hedström and Gerald Taylor. Faber & Faber, London 1956.
  • Martina Brunner-Bulst: Pieter Claesz .: the main master of the Haarlemer still life in the 17th century. Critical oeuvre catalog. Luca-Verlag, Lingen 2004, ISBN 3-923641-22-2 .
  • Laurens Bol: Dutch painters of the 17th century, close to the great masters: landscapes and still lifes . Klinkhardt & Biermann, Braunschweig 1969.
  • Sybille Ebert-Schifferer: The history of the still life. Hirmer, Munich 1998, ISBN 3-7774-7890-3 .
  • Claus Grimm: Still life. The Dutch and German masters. Belser, Stuttgart (inter alia) 1988, ISBN 3-7630-1945-6 .
  • Gerhard Langemeyer & Hans-Albert Peeters (eds.): Still life in Europe. (Aust.kat .: Westphalian State Museum for Art and Cultural History Münster & State Art Hall Baden-Baden 1980). Regional Association of Westphalia-Lippe, Münster 1979.
  • Koos Levy-Van Halm (Red.): De trots van Haarlem. Promotion van een stad in art en historie. (Aust.cat .: Frans Halsmuseum Haarlem & Teylers Museum Haarlem 1995). Haarlem (et al.) 1995.
  • Roswitha Neu-Kock (Red.): Still life - Natura Morta. In the Wallraf-Richartz-Museum and in the Museum Ludwig. (Aust.cat .: Wallraf-Richartz-Museum and Museum Ludwig Cologne 1980). Museums of the City of Cologne, Cologne 1980.
  • Michael North: History of the Netherlands. Beck, Munich 2003, ISBN 3-406-41878-3 .
  • Simon Schama: Overvloed en onbehagen: de Nederlandse cultuur in de Gouden Eeuw. Translated from the English by Eugène Dabekaussen, Barbara de Lange en Tilly Maters. Contact, Amsterdam 1988, ISBN 90-254-6838-1 .
  • Norbert Schneider: Still life. Reality and symbolism of things; the still life painting of the early modern period. Taschen, Cologne 1989, ISBN 3-8228-0398-7 .
  • APA Vorenkamp: Bijdrage tot de geschiedenis van het Hollandsch stilleven in de 17 eeuw: proefschrift the Verkrijging van den graad van doctor in de letteren en wijsbegeerte aan de Rijks-Universiteit te Leiden. NV Leidsche Uitgeversmaatschappij, Leiden 1933.
  • NRA Vroom: A modest message as intimated by the painters of the "Monochrome banketje" . Vol. 1 & 2: Interbook International, Schiedam 1980, Vol. 3: Wilson DMK, Nuremberg 1999.
  • NRA Vroom: De Schilders Van Het Monochrome Banketje. Kosmos, Amsterdam 1945.

Essays and Articles

  • Julie Berger Hochstrasser: Imag (in) ing prosperity. Painting and material culture in the 17th century Dutch household. In: Jan de Jong (Ed.): Wooncultuur in de Nederlanden. 1500 - 1800 = The art of home in the Netherlands. Zwolle 2001. Waanders, Zwolle 2001, ISBN 90-400-9539-6 , pp. 194-235 ( Nederlands kunsthistorisch jaarboek. 51).
  • Josua Bruyn: Dutch Cheese. A problem of interpretation. In: Simiolus 24, 1996, pp. 201-208.
  • Claus Grimm: Kitchen pieces - Market pictures - Fish still life In: In: Gerhard Langemeyer & Hans-Albert Peeters (Hrsg.): Still life in Europe. (Aust.kat .: Westphalian State Museum for Art and Cultural History Münster & State Art Hall Baden-Baden 1980). Landschaftsverband Westfalen-Lippe, Münster 1979, pp. 351–377.
  • Hanneke Grootenboer: Truth in Breakfast Painting. Horror Vacui versus the void and Pascal's Geometrical Rhetoric. In: Hanneke Grootenboer: The Rhetoric of Perspective. Realism and illusion in seventeenth-century Dutch still-life painting. Univ. of Chicago Press, Chicago 2005, ISBN 0-226-30968-1 , pp. 61-95.
  • Eddy de Jongh: De interpretatie van stillevens: boundaries en mogelijkheden. In: Eddy de Jongh: Kwesties van betekenis. Subject en motief in de Nederlandse schilderkunst van de zeventiende eeuw. Primavera Pers, Leiden 1995, ISBN 90-74310-14-1 , pp. 130-148.
  • Joseph Lammers: Fasting and Enjoyment. The set table as a theme of still life. In: Gerhard Langemeyer & Hans-Albert Peeters (Hrsg.): Still life in Europe. (Aust.kat .: Westphalian State Museum for Art and Cultural History Münster & State Art Hall Baden-Baden 1980). Landschaftsverband Westfalen-Lippe, Münster 1979, pp. 402-429.
  • J. Michael Montias: Cost and Value in seventeenth-century Dutch art. In: Art History. 10, 1987, pp. 455-466.

Notes and individual references

  1. ↑ Dyck, Floris van . In: General Artist Lexicon . The visual artists of all times and peoples (AKL). Volume 31, Saur, Munich a. a. 2001, ISBN 3-598-22771-X , p. 386.
  2. ↑ The designation as Banketjes or Ontbijtjes (Dutch = small meals / snacks) of these paintings comes from the contemporary inventories. See: APA Vorenkamp: Bijdrage tot de geschiedenis van het Hollandsch stilleven in de 17 eeuw: proefschrift ter Verkrijging van den graad van doctor in de letteren en wijsbegeerte aan de Rijks-Universiteit te Leiden. NV Leidsche Uitgeversmaatschappij, Leiden 1933, p. 6ff.
  3. ↑ "With the refugees [Flemish and Brabant emigrants] the progressive textile industry came to Leiden and Haarlem [...]."
    Michael North: History of the Netherlands. Beck, Munich 2003, p. 46.
  4. ↑ a b c Julie Berger Hochstrasser: Imag (in) ing prosperity. Painting and material culture in the 17th century Dutch household. In: Jan de Jong (Ed.): Wooncultuur in de Nederlanden. 1500 - 1800 = The art of home in the Netherlands. Zwolle 2001. Waanders, Zwolle 2001, p. 215.
  5. ↑ a b Joseph Lammers: Fasting and Enjoyment. The set table as a theme of still life. In: Gerhard Langemeyer & Hans-Albert Peeters (Hrsg.): Still life in Europe. (Aust.kat .: Westphalian State Museum for Art and Cultural History Münster & State Art Hall Baden-Baden 1980). Landschaftsverband Westfalen-Lippe, Münster 1979, p. 424.
  6. ↑ Simon Schama: Overvloed en onbehagen: de Nederlandse cultuur in de Gouden Eeuw. Translated from the English by Eugène Dabekaussen, Barbara de Lange en Tilly Maters. Contact, Amsterdam 1988, pp. 161ff, 169f.
  7. ↑ Claus Grimm: Still life. The Dutch and German masters. Belser, Stuttgart (et al.) 1988, p. 81 & Ibid .: note 62 (p. 235).
  8. ↑ As a suitable painting for comparison, reference is made to the “Still Life with Fruit, Wanli Porcelain and Squirrels” from 1616 in the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston.
  9. ^ A b Martina Brunner-Bulst: Pieter Claesz .: the main master of the Haarlem still life in the 17th century. Critical oeuvre catalog. Luca-Verlag, Lingen 2004, p. 138.
  10. ↑ Claus Grimm: Still life. The Dutch and German masters. Belser, Stuttgart (inter alia) 1988, p. 29 & Claus Grimm: Kitchen pieces - Market pictures - Fish still life In: In: Gerhard Langemeyer & Hans-Albert Peeters (Ed.): Stilleben in Europa. (Aust.kat .: Westphalian State Museum for Art and Cultural History Münster & State Art Hall Baden-Baden 1980). Landschaftsverband Westfalen-Lippe, Münster 1979, p. 359ff.
  11. ↑ Cf.: Description of the picture on the subject of the painting on the website of the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam.
  12. ↑ Claus Grimm: Still life. The Dutch and German masters. Belser, Stuttgart (et al.) 1988, p. 81.
  13. ↑ See: Joseph Lammers: Fasting and Enjoyment. The set table as a theme of still life. In: Gerhard Langemeyer & Hans-Albert Peeters (Hrsg.): Still life in Europe. (Aust.kat .: Westphalian State Museum for Art and Cultural History Münster & State Art Hall Baden-Baden 1980). Landschaftsverband Westfalen-Lippe, Münster 1979, p. 424 & Claus Grimm: Still life. The Dutch and German masters. Belser, Stuttgart (et al.) 1988, p. 81f.
  14. ^ Information from the documentation service of the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam.