Download our K-12 education pack - ARC Centre of Excellence for ...

stories for teachers & students 2013
Abundance
This is an example of a fruytje (little fruit) painting, in which the
beauty of delectable ripe fruit is laid out for the viewer’s
enjoyment. It celebrated the joy of abundance in a style of still
life known as pronkstilleven; that is, still life paintings which
were intended to be ostentatious and showy. However, some
artists pushed ripeness to its limits, showing fruit ready to burst
open or just on the edge of decay.
This hint of rot was a subtle reminder of the transcience of life.
Sensual pleasure and even human beauty could not be enjoyed
without the moral reminder of the decay to follow. This is hinted
at here through the inclusion of that most transitory of creatures,
the butterfly. The pomegranate could be used at the time both to
symbolise lust and temptation, as well as warnings against it,
depending on the objects that accompanied it.
For contemporaries, many of the objects depicted in such still
lifes held a second set of meanings, reflecting well known
religious symbolism. The grapes were a symbol of the Eucharist,
peaches of salvation, the butterfly represented resurrection, as
did the carnation, a symbol of eternal life.
Supporting Resources
Dutch Lives in the World
stories by winthrop professor susan broomhall
Those artists who specialised in still lifes tended to work for the
commercial market, rather than for patrons. Dutch society was
highly visually literate; images abounded throughout their
culture. It has been argued that the Dutch understood and
represented themselves through art, in the same way that
Elizabethan England did through theatre. As such, artists chose
objects, and combinations of them, that were readily meaningful
as well as aesthetically pleasurable for their potential buyers.
The pleasure that these paintings gave is attested by the fact that
Huysum was among the most popular and well-paid artists of
his day, with an international reputation and clientele. Perhaps
surprisingly, he led a reclusive life and only ever agreed to take
on one pupil, Margaretha Haverman.
Image/ Jan van Huysum, Still life with fruit. On a stone plinth, in the middle, a bunch
of white grapes, peaches, plums, a cut pomegranate and a half melon, with
butterflies and other insects, 1700-1749. © Rijksmuseum.
She was not alone in wanting artistic training. A number of
talented Dutch female painters enjoyed success during the
Golden Age, such as Rachael Ruysch, Judith Leyster, Maria van
Oosterwyck, Maria Sibylla Merian, Gesina ter Boch and Anna
Maria van Schurman, working mainly in areas of artistic
composition considered appropriate to their sex such as still life,
botanical subjects, and family portraits. Much of their output is
only now being rediscovered in museums, archives and in private
collections and other works have been reattributed to them as
we learn more about their production.
FAR FROM HOME: ADVENTURES, TREKS, EXILES & MIGRATION
55