Social Commentary in Dutch Still Life Paintings:
An adequate theory of representation must take into account the culturally specific circumstances in which visual images function. . . . Works of art embody the collective psychology of entire nations and epochs in perceptible form.
--Claire Farago
The topic of Renaissance art often draws to mind the master figures of
Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo; with their sweeping effects on their own time and influence on artists who followed, they left behind some of the world 's most beloved and appreciated pieces of art. Though certainly lesser known, two seventeenth-century Dutch artists each created a respectable body of work in the Renaissance period as well: Pieter
Gerritsz and Pieter Claesz. Their works consist of primarily still-life paintings; those commonly placed in monographs include Gerritsz ' Still
Life of the Paston (Yarmouth) Collection and Claesz ' Still Life with
Turkey-Pie. The painting by Gerritsz, now found in the Castle Museum in
Norwich, England, portrays an uruly accumulation of both exotic and domestic items gathered by Sir William Paston throughout the seventeenth century. Claesz ' work, alternately, now in London 's Hallsborough Gallery, displays a dinner table laden with half-consumed victuals and various decorations. Despite the seemingly simple and straightforward subjects of these respective still-life paintings, the items exhibited therein manifest a wide-reaching social commentary of the Renaissance, from changes in philosophical beliefs to the re-stratification of both economic and social classes.
Before examination of the social explications and implications of
Gerritsz ' Still Life of the Paston (Yarmouth) Collection and Claesz Still
Life with Turkey-Pie, it is important to acknowledge the great worth both paintings hold in their own right. The Paston painting, immense in detail and splended in scope, heralds the growth of the British Empire and records key pieces of Renaissance culture. In Still Life
--Claire Farago
The topic of Renaissance art often draws to mind the master figures of
Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo; with their sweeping effects on their own time and influence on artists who followed, they left behind some of the world 's most beloved and appreciated pieces of art. Though certainly lesser known, two seventeenth-century Dutch artists each created a respectable body of work in the Renaissance period as well: Pieter
Gerritsz and Pieter Claesz. Their works consist of primarily still-life paintings; those commonly placed in monographs include Gerritsz ' Still
Life of the Paston (Yarmouth) Collection and Claesz ' Still Life with
Turkey-Pie. The painting by Gerritsz, now found in the Castle Museum in
Norwich, England, portrays an uruly accumulation of both exotic and domestic items gathered by Sir William Paston throughout the seventeenth century. Claesz ' work, alternately, now in London 's Hallsborough Gallery, displays a dinner table laden with half-consumed victuals and various decorations. Despite the seemingly simple and straightforward subjects of these respective still-life paintings, the items exhibited therein manifest a wide-reaching social commentary of the Renaissance, from changes in philosophical beliefs to the re-stratification of both economic and social classes.
Before examination of the social explications and implications of
Gerritsz ' Still Life of the Paston (Yarmouth) Collection and Claesz Still
Life with Turkey-Pie, it is important to acknowledge the great worth both paintings hold in their own right. The Paston painting, immense in detail and splended in scope, heralds the growth of the British Empire and records key pieces of Renaissance culture. In Still Life
Cited: Albala, Ken. Eating Right in the Renaissance. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2002. New York: HarperCollins Publishers, Inc., 1994. 300-301. Europe and Latin America 1450-1650. Ed. Claire Farago. New Haven, Connecticut: Yale University Press, 1995 Europe and Latin America 1450-1650. Ed. Claire Farago. New Haven, Connecticut: Yale University Press, 1995 Press, 1995. 177-198. Levey, Michael. Early Renaissance. Style and Civilization. New York: Penguin Books, 1987. Wright, Louis B. Middle-Class Culture in Elizabethan England. Chapel Hill, North Carolina: University of North Carolina Press, 1935