Essay About Dutch Still Life Paintings And Social Commentary

Social Commentary in Dutch Still Life Paintings:
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An adequate theory of representation must take into account the culturally
specific circumstances in which visual images function. . . . Works of art
embody the collective psychology of entire nations and epochs in
perceptible form.
–Claire Farago
The topic of Renaissance art often draws to mind the master figures of
Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo; with their sweeping effects on their
own time and influence on artists who followed, they left behind some of
the worlds most beloved and appreciated pieces of art. Though certainly
lesser known, two seventeenth-century Dutch artists each created a
respectable body of work in the Renaissance period as well: Pieter
Gerritsz and Pieter Claesz. Their works consist of primarily still-life
paintings; those commonly placed in monographs include Gerritsz Still
Life of the Paston (Yarmouth) Collection and Claesz Still Life with
Turkey-Pie. The painting by Gerritsz, now found in the Castle Museum in
Norwich, England, portrays an uruly accumulation of both exotic and
domestic items gathered by Sir William Paston throughout the seventeenth
century. Claesz work, alternately, now in Londons Hallsborough Gallery,
displays a dinner table laden with half-consumed victuals and various
decorations. Despite the seemingly simple and straightforward subjects of
these respective still-life paintings, the items exhibited therein
manifest a wide-reaching social commentary of the Renaissance, from
changes in philosophical beliefs to the re-stratification of both economic
and social classes.
Before examination of the social explications and implications of
Gerritsz Still Life of the Paston (Yarmouth) Collection and Claesz Still
Life with Turkey-Pie, it is important to acknowledge the great worth both
paintings hold in their own right. The Paston painting, immense in detail
and splended in scope, heralds the growth of the British Empire and
records key pieces of Renaissance culture. In Still Life with Turkey-Pie,
Claesz gives one example of the dozens of still life paintings he created
over his lifetime, inspiring younger artists to follow his example in
subject matter and in the fine quality and attention to minute aspects of
artistry. While it would be worthwhile to note the various techniques and
innovations used by Gerritsz and Claesz as representatives of the
Renaissance, another examinatin of merit lies in what Erwin Panofsky
defines as “iconography in a deeper sense” (8). It is grappling “with a
work of art as a symptom of something else . . . and we interpret its
compositional and iconographical features as more particularized evidence
of this something else” (Panofsky 8). The “something else” in regard to
Gerritsz and Claesz falls into the category of various aspects of
Renaissance society and ways in which it developed from the preceding
medieval era. These two artists powerfully impact views of the Renaissance
time period through their disparate works of art.
Gerritsz Paston painting was commissioned by an English nobleman fond of
travel overseas, which accounts for the exotic nature and international
flavor of many pieces within the work (Kemp 177). This exoticism gives in