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Europe 1300 - 1800
Course: Europe 1300 - 1800 > Unit 9
Lesson 4: Dutch Republic- Model of the Dutch East India Company ship "Valkenisse"
- The Dutch art market in the 17th century
- Why make a self portrait?
- A Dutch doll house
- Van Mander, Het Schilder-Boeck
- Frederiks Andries, Covered coconut cup
- Osias Beert, Still Life with Various Vessels on a Table
- Anthony van Dyck, Self-Portrait as Icarus with Daedalus
- Saenredam, Interior of Saint Bavo, Haarlem
- Hals, Singing Boy with Flute
- Hals, Malle Babbe
- Frans Hals, The Women Regents
- Willem Claesz. Heda, Still Life with Glasses and Tobacco
- Rembrandt, The Artist in His Studio
- Rembrandt, The Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Tulp
- Rembrandt, The Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Tulp
- Rembrandt, The Night Watch
- Rembrandt, The Night Watch
- Rembrandt, Self-Portrait with Saskia
- Rembrandt, Girl at a Window
- Rembrandt, Aristotle with a Bust of Homer
- Rembrandt, Aristotle with a Bust of Homer
- Rembrandt, Christ Crucified between the Two Thieves: The Three Crosses.
- Rembrandt, Bathsheba at her Bath
- Rembrandt, Abraham Francen
- Rembrandt, Self-Portrait
- Rembrandt, Self-Portrait with Two Circles
- Rembrandt, The Jewish Bride
- Rembrandt, Christ Preaching (Hundred Guilder Print)
- Is it a genuine Rembrandt?
- Judith Leyster, The Proposition
- Judith Leyster, Self-Portrait
- Early Dutch Torah Finials
- Michaelina Wautier, The Five Senses
- Willem Kalf, Still Life with a Silver Ewer
- Gerrit Dou, A Woman Playing a Clavichord
- Vermeer, The Glass of Wine
- Vermeer, Young Woman with a Water Pitcher
- Johannes Vermeer, Woman Holding a Balance
- Vermeer, Woman Holding a Balance
- Johannes Vermeer, Girl with a Pearl Earring
- Johannes Vermeer, The Art of Painting
- Jan Steen, Feast of St. Nicholas
- Ruisdael, View of Haarlem with Bleaching Grounds
- Jacob van Ruisdael, The Jewish Cemetery
- Andries Beeckman, The Castle of Batavia and Dutch colonialism
- Frans Post, Landscape with Ruins in Olinda
- Rachel Ruysch, Fruit and Insects
- Rachel Ruysch, Fruit and Insects
- Rachel Ruysch, Flower Still-Life
- Van Huysum, Vase with Flowers
- Conserving van Walscapelle's Flowers in a Glass Vase
- The Great Atlas, Dutch edition
- The Town Hall of Amsterdam
- Huis ten Bosch (House in the Woods)
- 17th century Delftware
- Baroque art in Holland
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Willem Claesz. Heda, Still Life with Glasses and Tobacco
Willem Claesz. Heda, Still Life with Glasses and Tobacco, 1633, oil on panel, 50.8 x 75.6 cm (Center for Netherlandish Art, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston). Speakers: Dr. Christopher Atkins, Van Otterloo-Weatherbie Director of the Center for Netherlandish Art and Dr. Steven Zucker. Created by Smarthistory.
Video transcript
(upbeat piano jazz music) - [Christopher] We're in the galleries of the Museum of Fine Arts Boston in a room that's devoted to Dutch art. Looking at one of the genres of painting that we strongly associate with Dutch painters in the 17th century. This is a still life by
an artist named Heda. - [Steven] What we see is a tabletop with a variety of edibles and goods. These are the types of
things that would've been in a 17th-century Dutch home. - [Christopher] Let's
talk about symbolism. - [Steven] There has been a tendency to read individual objects and look for what that
particular object might mean. For example, if we look
at the pipe that's broken or the rope that is lit
in order to light a pipe, we might be inclined to read them as some sort of emblem of transience,
of the passing of time, but I'm not sure that that's
right in this picture. - [Christopher] And there's
a good reason that we might look to symbolism to try
to explain a painting. There's an entire type
of still life in Holland that is known as the vanitas, and that is very specifically
about the transience of life and the fact that no one can escape death. But there are many types of still lifes and not all of them put
symbolism front and center. But if this is not about
larger moral meanings, then what is it about? - [Steven] We can look at
the accumulation of objects and place it within the
context in which it was made in a hyper-capitalist
and consumer society, which the 17th-century Dutch Republic was. There's also the context of the artist showing off how he could render all of these different
surfaces and textures. - [Christopher] And we see examples of the wealth of 17th century Dutch society. We see what is probably
a solid silver tazza, that is the toppled silver tray, or that beautiful delicate Venetian glass. - [Steven] And those were
expensive luxury items. Those were not the types of things that were accessible to every person. - [Christopher] And looking at the objects that were chosen for the still life can give us more access to
Dutch life in the 17th century. Some of these objects, like
that glass, is from Venice. Some of these materials
such as the tobacco, undoubtedly came from Virginia. These were imports, and they spoke to the
mercantile international culture of Holland at this time. - [Steven] The metal,
the silver of the tazza probably came from a mine, most likely in South America
or possibly in Germany. And we want to imagine
whose table is this? - [Christopher] And by extension, who is this painting made for? It was probably made for
the inventory of the artist who would then hope to sell it. And so the object itself, this painting, was very much a mercantile object, just like the things that
are represented within it. - [Steven] For Heda, working
within that economic context, he invested this picture, like his others, with tremendous technical
skill to show off and create a distinctive
approach to still life painting that said that he, Heda,
was a master of the genre. - [Christopher] Look at
the subtlety of color, and it is mind blowing how
close the tonalities are, and yet how distinct each color is, and the way in which that silver tazza has been hammered and crafted. I can almost sense what it would feel like to hold that object. - [Steven] The way Heda
positioned the tazza also created an artistic challenge for him to be able to create a
foreshortened object, to create the illusion
of it receding into space was extremely difficult. And at the same time, he accomplishes it with absolute mastery. If we look at the left hand edge, we can see a single line of highlight that is just gorgeously executed. - [Christopher] And then
look at the right corner. You have the overlapping,
almost the weaving in and out of that waxed rope, whose end
is a kind of burning ember. But it's weaving in and
out of those clay pipes, creating almost a grid
seen in perspective. This painting is a triumph, but it's a triumph not
only of the artist's skill, but also of the sophistication of the market for whom he was painting. - [Steven] And on the part of the viewer, they were sophisticated,
they could tell quality. They could use their
eye of evaluating goods and apply that to pictures. - [Christopher] There are some
extraordinary passages here. I think one of my favorite is the way in which the contour of the lemon is echoed by the plate that surrounds it. - [Steven] It's about how the
different objects interrelate, how, for example, the brown of the nuts moves our eye as we pick it up
with the tobacco to the rope and finally to the beer in the background. He's carefully distributing the color to have our eye move around and encompass all of those wonderful things
that he's put before us. - [Christopher] So this is a celebration of the wealth, of the economic power of the Netherlands in the 17th century. (upbeat piano jazz music)