Hi starmorwen-ga,
Here's the information you requested on the various painters. I found
this to be a very interesting question to work on and have learned
much about Dutch stilllife painting in the process!
If you have any questions, please ask for clarification before rating
this answer.
Thanks,
tj-ga
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--Carel Fabritius--
A View of Delft, with a Musical Instrument Seller's Stall, 1652
Photo and commentary of the painting at:
http://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/cgi-bin/WebObjects.dll/CollectionPublisher.woa/wa/work?workNumber=NG3714
His biography can be found at:
http://216.239.51.100/search?q=cache:I2ekapUtzGAC:www.absolutearts.com/artsnews/2001/06/20/28732.html+Fabritius+%22view+of+delft%22+1652&hl=en&ie=UTF-8
"...One of the most talented painters active in Delft around 1650 was
Carel Fabritius. He was born in 1622 and worked in Rembrandt's studio
in Amsterdam from 1641 to 1643 when he returned to his native
Midden-Beemster. He settled in Delft around 1650. Unfortunately his
life was tragically cut short by the great gunpowder explosion that
devastated a large part of the town in 1654. As a result, we know of
only nine works by his hand. Besides his self portrait from Rotterdam
(Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen) that slightly predates his Delft
period, the exhibition includes the four works Fabritius executed in
Delft: his 'View of Delft, with a Musical Instrument Seller's Stall'
of 1652 (National Gallery, London), from 1654 his famous 'Goldfinch'
(Mauritshuis, The Hague), his second self portrait (National Gallery,
London) and his rarely seen 'The Sentry from Schwerin' (Staatliches
Museum). ..."
Commentary from http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/story.hts/ae/books/ch1/1030559
"...A very small creation of his was a View in Delft painted in 1652
-- a miniature but slightly dizzymaking prospect. A man sits at an
outside stall displaying two stringed instruments and contemplates the
cobbled roadway where the Oude Langendijk meets the Vrouwenrecht. The
road climbs steeply over a humped bridge. There's a single tree in
leaf, houses, and the Nieuwe Kerk, strangely small, seen from the
rear. The distorting effect is like that of an amusement arcade
mirror, with different elements of the picture in irregular focus, an
unnaturally wide angle of view, and disconcerting discrepancies of
scale. The sunlit viola da gamba and lute loom large in the
foreground, almost overwhelming the black-coated and black-hatted man
sitting in the shadows, with the thumb of one hand propping up his
chin. The instruments may be symbols of love (as in music `the food of
love'). The hanging sign may be advertising an inn; it shows a swan --
perhaps a symbol denoting a happy death (as in swan song), perhaps a
hostelry of dubious reputation (as with the swans that drew the
chariot of Venus). The experts also disagree as to whether the man is
trying to sell the instruments or is waiting for a young woman. Most
agree that the tiny size of the picture (15.4 x 31.6 cm, 6 1/16 x 12
7/16 in.) enhances its success; it is a tour de force; the view both
is and isn't Delft as Fabritius's friends and colleagues would have
recognised it.
Hoogstraten said that it was a pity that Fabritius never worked on
a royal building or church, where -- he implied -- his ability to
create such startling illusions would have been seen to greater
advantage. But in fact the View in Delft is happy in its size; only
its context is unclear. Was it intended for a peepshow or perspective
box, of the kind that Hoogstraten himself made?..."
Additional smaller commentary can be found at:
http://essentialvermeer.20m.com/school_of_delft_four.htm
--Willem van Aelst --
Still Life with Dead Game, 1661
Photo of painting and commentary at:
http://www.nga.gov/collection/gallery/gg47/gg47-60908.0.html
His biography can be found at http://www.nga.gov/cgi-bin/pbio?70
From that page, "...Van Aelst specialized in still-life painting, but
within this genre he was quite versatile, painting fruit and flower
pieces, and, above all, hunting scenes, with dead game and hunting
gear. This type of picture became very popular after mid-century. Van
Aelst seems to have been particularly influential in the development
of this genre; his paintings were greatly praised, and he received
high prices for them..."
From http://www.kfki.hu/~arthp/bio/a/aelst/biograph.html
"...Aelst's still-lifes are distinguishable from those of other Dutch
painters, being frequently littered with bric-á-brac of Renaissance
antiquarianism..."
--Emanuel de Witte--
Interior of a Protestant Gothic Church, 1668
Photo and commentary at:
http://www.kfki.hu/~arthp/html/w/witte/protesta.html
"...Emanuel de Witte was born and trained in Alkmaar but had come to
Delft by 1641 and joined the painters' guild there in the following
year. He remained in Delft for ten years but it was only at the end of
his stay in the town, around 1650, that he began to paint the church
interiors which form the greater part of his work. With his two Delft
contemporaries, Gerard Houckgeest and Hendrick van Vliet, he developed
this new type of subject-matter for painting.
They painted 'portraits' of the churches of Delft (and elsewhere),
although they allowed themselves some leeway in the arrangement of
individual architectural and other elements for compositional
purposes. The tombs of the heroes of the Republic, notably those of
Piet Hein in the Old Church and William the Silent in the New Church,
were chosen as a patriotic focus for some of the compositions. Bright
daylight, passing through the clear glass of the windows, illuminates
the whitewashed interiors, with their tiled floors, memorial tablets
and heraldic banners. Figures are glimpsed between the columns and in
front of the tombs, not all of them treating their surroundings with
appropriate reverence. In this painting the gravedigger pauses to
gossip, while a man on the left sleeps, watched over by his dog.
Houekgeest seems to have been the innovator in this group of artists
but De Witte, the greatest painter of the three, softened the harsh
linearity of Houckgeest's style. De Witte, unlike Houckgeest and Van
Vliet, was a sensitive colourist, offsetting the severe black and
white of the church interiors with patches of bright reds, yellows and
greens. By January 1652 De Witte had moved to Amsterdam where he
continued to specialize in church interiors..."
--Ambrosius Bosschaert, the Elder--
Bouquet of Flowers in a Glass Vase, 1621
Photo of painting at:
http://www.nga.gov/cgi-bin/pinfo?Object=93812+0+lit
Additional photo and commentary at:
http://www.nga.gov/feature/artnation/still_life/bosschaert_1.htm
"...Ambrosius Bosschaert was one of the first still-life specialists.
Thanks to the booming seventeenth-century Dutch art market, he became
wealthy and famous, as the inscription on this painting attests, "It
is the angelic hand of the great painter of flowers, Ambrosius,
renowned even to the banks of death."..."
http://www.nga.gov/feature/artnation/still_life/bosschaert_2.htm
"...Bosschaert's style is astonishingly precise. He paints each bloom
as though it were a portrait, applying the paint so carefully that
every trace of brushwork disappears. His paintings are composed from
careful studies of individual flowers. This empirical approach stemmed
from the enthusiasm for botany in the early seventeenth century, when
scientists were identifying and classifying thousands of newly
discovered plant species..."
http://www.nga.gov/feature/artnation/still_life/bosschaert_3.htm
"...Depicting a rare flower added value to a painting, and during the
early years of the seventeenth century, a tulip appears in virtually
every Dutch flower still life..."
http://www.nga.gov/feature/artnation/still_life/bosschaert_4.htm
"...Early Dutch still life also had a religious dimension. Images such
as this were idealized in composition and context. For example, the
flowers shown here bloomed in different seasons and could not have
been arranged together. As for the setting, a vase of flowers was not
a common sight in everyday Dutch households--they were very expensive.
For the Dutch, a beautiful flower demonstrated that God's natural
world was full of beauty and variety. Because they bloom only briefly,
flowers also signified transience and reminded viewers of death, a
theme called vanitas..."
--Jan Davidsz de heem--
Vase of Flowers, 1645
Photo of painting and commentary at:
http://www.nga.gov/collection/gallery/gg47/gg47-45814.0.html
From the link above:
"...The thirty-one species of plants in this vase cannot bloom in the
same season. Many of these blossoms have emblematic meanings. The
upper flowers thrive in the sunshine that streams through De Heem's
studio windows to be reflected in the crystal vase. The lower plants,
farther away from the light of heaven, droop and wilt.
Near the bottom, a salamander stares hungrily at a spider, while a
snail, moth, and ants crawl on the marble shelf. All these creatures
symbolize night and decay. On the white poppy at the top, a
caterpillar and butterfly evoke the idea of rebirth from a cocoon or
tomb..."
--Jan van Huysum--
Bouquet of Flowers in an urn, 1724
Photo and commentary available at:
http://www.kfki.hu/~arthp/html/h/huysum/bouq_urn.html
"...The main line of eighteenth-century Dutch still-life painting is
represented by the Amsterdamers Rachel Ruysch and Jan van Huysum, who
both specialized in elaborate flower and fruit pictures. They were the
most popular still-life painters of the period; their works commanded
high prices and were found in famous collections throughout Europe,
and their colourful paintings still have wide appeal. The status they
were accorded in their time indicates there were powerful patrons and
collectors who took exception to the teachings of academic theorists
who minimized the significance of still-lifes by placing them at the
lower end of the hierarchy of kinds of painting.
In the hands of Rachel Ruysch and Jan van Huysum Dutch flower pieces
brighten up again. Their technical perfection and love of minute
detail recall the still-lifes painted a century earlier by Bosschaert
and his followers, and like their predecessors they did not hesitate
to include flowers of different seasons in their arrangements.
However, neither Ruysch nor van Huysum arranges blooms into evenly lit
symmetrical bunches in the way that early-seventeenth-century painters
did, and their lively chiaroscuro effects and delightful ornateness
show an unmistakable affinity with Late Baroque and Rococo art..."
--Willem Claesz Heda--
Breakfast Table Still Life with Blackberry Pie, 1631
Photo and commentary of painting can be seen at:
http://www.kfki.hu/~arthp/html/h/heda/breakfas.html
From the link above,
"...In the early 1630s Heda began to use the compositional structures
developed by Nicolaes Gillis and Floris van Dijck. Unlike those
artists, however, he placed the white tablecloth on the left or
right-hand edge of the table, so that the middle of the table is not
covered and is no longer symmetric. In subsequent 'banketjes' (banquet
pieces), the tablecloth was pushed further and further aside - as
early as 1638 in Heda's paintings - until it was actually crumpled.
Whereas for quite some time food was shown as almost untouchable,
precious and just for display, increasing traces of consumption are
now visible. The objects were no longer merely intended to embody
status-defining values, but became evidence of spontaneous acts which
disrupted the festive structures of the framework..."
--Abraham van beyeren--
Banquet Still Life, 1650s
Photo of painting at:
http://www.mauritshuis.nl/english/collectie/stillevens/van_beyeren.html
Commentary at:
http://www.kfki.hu/~arthp/html/b/beyeren/banquet.html
"...The Dutch call 'pronk stilleven' (pronk means sumptuous or
ostentatious) the lavish still-lifes of the type of abundant display
on carpet-covered tables piled high with ornate silver platters and
baskets of expensive fruit. These works are usually embellished with
exquisite trappings, precious metal vessels, and delicate glassware.
The term is traditionally used to categorize overt displays of
magnificent banquets and luxury items painted from the mid- to the
late decades of the century. De Heem, Willem Kalf, and Abraham van
Beyeren were the leading practitioners of the type. Their patrons
presumably belonged to the upper echelons of society and made no
secret of their expensive tastes..."
--Jacob van Ruisdael--
Windmill at Wijk bij Durstede, 1668
Photo of painting and commentary found at:
http://www.kfki.hu/~arthp/html/r/ruysdael/jacob/3/windmill.html
"...A Dutch landscape consists essentially of sky dominating low-lying
land, where water (whether it be the sea or some canal) frequently
reflects the clouds. In the work of Ruisdael the feeling of infinity,
in which man seems lost, attains a Pascalian gravity.
In this painting the sky responds in its cloud formations to the
mighty wings of the windmill. As in Rembrandt's mature phase, which is
approximately contemporaneous, this landscape shows classical elements
which strengthen the compositional power. Horizontals and verticals
are coordinated with the Baroque diagonals, which are still alive and
help to create a mighty spaciousness. The atmospheric quality is as
important as ever in uniting the whole impression. Light breaks now
with greater intensity through the clouds and the clouds themselves
gain in substance and volume. The sky forms a gigantic vault above the
earth, and it is admirable how almost every point on the ground and on
the water can be related to a corresponding point in the sky..."
*******************
Search terms:
"Carel Fabritius" "View of Delft" (using these terms, I found
www.artcyclopedia.com . This is a very comprehensive list of artists,
with links to museum holdings and commentaries. Searching within
www.artcyclopedia.com brought up the other links listed.) |
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