The Age of Pleasure and Enlightenment European art of the ...

Butter TubDutch, Delft, c. 1760Tin-glazed earthenwareThe Richard and Georgette A. Koopman Collection of Delft, 2004.26.56A,BButter tubs were found on almost every table in the Netherlands, where bread and butter wereeaten in great quantity. The shape of this tub developed from wooden utensils that had lids heldin place by two rods. In the ceramic tubs, the rods were eliminated but the leaf-form handlesretained the holes nevertheless.Charles-Antoine CoypelFrench, 1694–1752The Fainting of Armida, c. 1733–35Oil on canvasThe Ella Gallup Sumner and Mary Catlin Sumner Collection Fund, 2011.5.1Coypel began his career as a designer of tapestries for the Gobelins factory, and soon became thefavorite painter of Maria Leczinska, Louis XV’s Polish-born queen. He was also greatly inspiredby theater and opera, and he even began a second career as a playwright in 1718, producing bothcomedies and tragedies. Both aspects of his career are reflected in this painting, which may havebeen a preliminary design for a tapestry from the Tapestry of Operatic Episodes series woven in1771. It illustrates a final scene from the popular French opera Armide, in which the sorceressArmida, realizing that the spell she had cast upon the Crusader Rinaldo was broken, prepares todestroy the enchanted kingdom she had created. Coypel lavished all his considerable skill onpresenting an extravagant imaginary setting and elaborate costumes that present an ideal ratherthan an actual performance.