Thursday, August 29, 2013

Robert Hooke's Flea



Image of a flea from Robert Hooke's Micrographia, published in 1665 
under the aegis of the Royal Society, London

Thursday, August 8, 2013

Exploring Works on Display: A Culture of the Copy


Anonymous, (Dutch, after Paulus Moreelse), Shepherdess, late 16th - mid 17th Century. photo: John Tamblyn


The theme of the shepherdess was popular in 17th-century Dutch art and it was not unusual for fashionable young women to have their likenesses rendered as such. The origins of the theme can be traced back to antiquity where it appeared as a leitmotif in poetry dealing with pastoral subject matter. Among the more successful Dutch painters to have portrayed sitters as shepherdesses was Paulus Moreelse, a highly successful artist from Utrecht. 

The McMaster Museum painting, which was formerly attributed to Moreelse, is almost certainly a copy by a follower or imitator of the distinguished artist, whose technical facility exceeded the hand represented in this exhibition. Such copies point to the demand for subjects of this type and, with equal importance, the value accorded to imitation itself. The market for prints, which had expanded considerably during the Renaissance, had helped to visually disseminate the compositions, subject matter and even styles of leading artists throughout Europe.* With this distribution of visual information came a demand for copies of prized or significant works otherwise previously available only to the nobility or those fortunate enough to travel to distant cities to see works in situ. As the picture shown here indicates, the culture of the copy was not limited to printed material. Painted or sculpted works in the style of a celebrated artist could also be valued by those with the means to afford an imitation. 


* Consider, for instance, Albrecht Durer's print of The Sea Monster, featured in this exhibition.

Monday, August 5, 2013

Exploring Works on Display: Small Wonders


Precious (red) coral, Sardinia, undated, private collection, photo: Greg Davies

Precious (red) coral, such as the piece displayed in this exhibition, was considered a natural curiosity in the age of the Baroque and it was often displayed in the ‘wonder cabinets’ (wunderkammern) of collectors. According to myth precious coral was said to have grown from the blood of Medusa when Perseus set her severed head by a shoreline. As the blood trickled to the seaweed growing at the water's edge the plants were transformed into red coral, thus becoming 'stone'.

Natural wonders were identified as clever ‘jokes of nature’ (lusus naturae) by the Roman historian Pliny. During the 17th century artists would often attempt to rival nature’s ingenuity. Nautilus shells, narwhal tusks and other wonders could be transformed into elaborate cups and decorative objects through the artistry of the goldsmith and jeweler, resulting in works made even more marvelous by human invention.1
  

1Jan Vermeyen’s Narwalhornbecher in the collections of the Kunstkammer Wien (1600-1605, Inv. No.: KK_1113, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna) is an excellent example of the rather more rare narwhal horn cup. 

Exploring Works on Display: The Sea Monster



Albrecht Dürer, The Sea Monster  / Das Meerwunder, engraving, c. 1498 - 1500. photo: John Tamblyn

Albrecht Dürer's imaginative engraving of a sea monster abducting a beautiful woman belongs to the period of the High Renaissance rather than the Baroque. However the artist's fame ensured that his extraordinary prints remained collectible works well into the 17th and 18th centuries. 

The Sea Monster remains among his more enigmatic images. In the foreground the artist draws a contrast between beauty (represented by the female nude) and monstrosity (represented by the sea creature proper). The subject has been variously identified by scholars without any general consensus as to its precise meaning. Stories of beautiful women being pursued or abducted by sea monsters had been popular since antiquity and possible connections between this image and the tales of Glaucus and Scylla or Poseidon's pursuit of Amymone have been drawn. Yet the elaborate headdress worn by the female figure, which closely resembles the fashion of Milanese noblewomen in Dürer's time, has led to alternative interpretations which link the subject to popular northern Italian stories of abductions.

While the eroticism of the nude figure may be highlighted in the image the bizzarre monstrosity cannot go unnoticed. Dürer's attention to detail betrays a fascination with curious natural forms which was underscored by the artist's own collecting habits. At the Dürer House in Nuremburg, Germany, remnants of a 'cabinet of wonders' (wunderkammer) can still be seen today. Amongst the varous curiosities Dürer sent back to Germany, while travelling through Europe, were "animal horns, fish fins, a piece of coral and a weapon from Calicut."*


* A. Hyatt Mayor, Prints & People: A Social History of Printed Pictures, (New York: 1972), p. 48.