• 17th Century Europe sees division of categories of art

• History painting is on the top—consists of myth, allegories, and history. Is moralistic, and meant to teach people how to behave

• Genre painting is the painting of scenes of everyday life

Hierarchy of Genres

• History• Nudes• Portraiture• Genre• Landscape• Animal Paintings• Still Life

Willem Kalf Still Life with Late Ming Ginger Jar 1669

Changes in patronage—newly emerging Middle class shows wealth byCollecting art

Luxury items are portrayed in paintings

But scale of paintings is modest, in lineWith Protestant teachings

Clara Peeters Still Life With Flowers, Goblet, Dried Fruit, and Pretzels 1611

• Genre painting is not moralistic in character, unlike history painting

• Genre painting is said to appeal to women due to its portrayal of worldly goods over high-minded ends

• South perceives Northern painting as too exact and not about heroic subjects, and therefore lower in the hierarchy

William Kalf Still Life with Drinking Horn c. 1653

Still life=Representation of Inanimate forms

Celebrates the Accumulation of goods

Is scientifically accurateIn detail

All about textures andsurfaces

Philippe_de_Champaigne_Still-Life_with_a_Skull c. 1671

Example of “vanitas” painting: reminds the viewer of fleetingness of life, human finitudeAnd mortality. Contains skull as memento mori

Has to to with Protestant belief in temperance

Caravaggio Basket of Fruit 1599

Jan Vermeulen Vanitas 1654

Jan de Heem Still Life of Books 1628

Books in disarray show fleetingness of human life and activity

Franz Snyders Still Life with Game and Larder c. 1610

Dutch Landscape

• Depicts land reclamation efforts (windmills, canals)—swampland is made agriculturally useful

• Paintings are made repetitively—artists will reproduce same subjects over and over (artists become specialized)

• Landscape paintings are all about the specificity of place and a national spirit

Claude Lorrain Landscape with Sacrifice to Apollo 1662-3

Ideal landscape: not based in nature. Often contain ruins of classical architecture as A reference to the high art tradition. Combines elements of landscape and history painting

Cuyp Distant View of Dordrecht late 1640's

Cows refer to prevalence of dairy industry in the NetherlandsRecognizable architecture

Jan Van Goyen A Windmill by a River 1642

In Dutch landscapes, windmills replace classical temples. Land is rendered exactly, withoutidealization

Jan Vermeer View of Delft 1660

Descriptive painting renders the world as it is seen, not for significant actions, as in the caseOf history painting.Painting is almost like a map. “Roving eye” vs perspectival construction

Peter Breughel the Elder View of Naples 1562-3

Jacob van Ruisdael View of Haarlem c. 1670

People are inconsequential. Painter remains a craftsperson—continuity of tradition is evident

Vermeer The Letter 1666

Interior domestic scenes become a subject for Dutch 17th century paintingVermeer is most prominent painter of these scenesPaintings are descriptive but contain symbolism, such as lute, which is a Symbol of love.

Pieter de Hooch Courtyard of a House in Delft 1658

Vermeer the Procuress 1656

Jan Vermeer Allegory of Painting c. 1666

Vermeer pays close attention to the impact of lightUses small dots of paint called “pointilles”—give the impression of light on formUsed a camera obscura to make imagesThis produces “halation,” or the distortion of the image around the edges

Painter in this scene is Recognizable as Durer

Model is Clio, the muse of History

L: Titian Venus at Her Mirror 1555R: Jan Vermeer Woman with a Pearl Necklace 1664

Difference between Southern and Northern depictions of women dressing—Southern is Allegory about female vanity, Northern is more ambiguous

L: Jan Steen in the Tavern 1660'sR: Jan Vermeer Girl With a Wine Glass 1659-60