The Dissolute Household, yes, that is a good name for the scene in the painting above. Raucous merrymaking is going on, as well as a few other things. The buxom lady of the house sits with one foot on the crumpled page of an open book – so much for high culture. Near the book is an overturned backgammon board with a lute precariously propped up against the board, which stands on end. Nearby on the floor is the detritous of this gleeful binge of consumption, a broken wine bottle, what appears to be a rudimentary time piece, and a plate of ham being eyed by the family cat. The lady of the house meanwhile has her head tilted back in the direction of the maid who is pouring milady a fresh glass of wine. With the wife’s head turned away, the grinning hubby, plays fiddling fingers with the maid whose other hand pours milady’s drink. Another woman (a nanny?) sits nodding off at one end of the table, while her naughty charge tickles her neck from behind. Curtains from the window and a drape from the bed hang in a haphazard way having been flung up to get them out of the way. A young boy, standing by a large bowl of fruits, has his attention drawn to the window, where the hand of a man just outside is inserted as if to beg for food. Welcome to the embarrassment of riches!
The Dutch Golden Age, that glorious period in the 17th century (1609-1713) when Dutch traders had a combined fleet of 10,000 ships engaged in the spice trade, among other less savory trading activities, is known for its great painting. This is the age of Rembrandt, Vermeer, Rubens, Claesz, and many other artists who all chronicled what art historian Simon Schama refers to in his book of the same name as “the embarrassment of riches” that was the wealth of the Netherlands. However, wealth has many sides, and one side seems to have a lot to do with the spoils of wealth and its temptations. That is where the paintings of Jan Steen come in.
The house presented in this painting is so much better maintained than the one first presented here. However, there are still little treacheries and indiscretions going on. Front and center in bright light is a young woman whose stare invites us into the painting. She looks at the viewer with the calm ease of someone who knows she is going to win, as a man is tempting her erstwhile competitor, the young male card player, with a glass of wine. That young man gives his cards a pensive and rather nervous stare as he considers his bet. I’d say he might as well at least enjoy the wine, since the woman he is playing against seems to be the mistress of aces. She holds the ace of hearts in her left hand, the ace of clubs in her card hand, and has somehow gotten rid of the ace of spades, which lies on the floor. Meanwhile in a room at the back of this house, a man has his arms around the waist of a woman, perhaps to urge her to sit upon his lap. A woman dressed in black sits at the table but has her back turned to the viewer. She is completely engaged in what another woman is showing her, while a man (a Jan Steen self-portrait) regards what she is being shown. The family dog, normally a symbol of loyalty and protection, has gone to sleep on the floor, indicating that there is no fidelity or protection in that house regardless of how nice it looks.
Here in another riotous household scene, once again we are in the land of plenty, as there is food on the table and on the floor, along with beer vessels, hats, books, and whatever else gets easily tossed aside. The animals, in this case a dog on the table and a pig that has come in from outside, scarf up what food they find, while the humans are engaged in all kinds of other things. The elder couple on the right consist of a man who is a Quaker, indicated here by the duck on his shoulder (quacker, Quaker), and a woman who is part of a Catholic lay order where the women take a vow of chastity. They are trying to dissuade the young couple at the center of the action from their wine-fueled lust. The young woman sits with a wine jug hanging loosely in one hand while she tickles the area behind the man’s knee with her fingers. One can’t help but notice that while her hair is properly covered, her dress is off the shoulder with a low cut bodice. A nanny is once again asleep, while a little boy tickles her neck, and the baby, who has thrown his bowl on the floor, looks like he is about to send the spoon in the same direction. The message, Beware of Luxury, is Steen’s cheeky way of showing people giving in to their temptations, while at the same time indicating moral disorder through the disorderly condition of the house. For more detail on this picture, see this quick video called In Case of Luxury – Beware. youtube.com
For a Protestant society in which black and white were the appropriate clothing colors of the day, Steen in some ways walked a fine line. Rembrandt got heavily critisized for painting himself hoisting up a huge stein of beer while Saskia, his wife, sat on his lap, both of them with huge grins. They were seen as bragging about their good fortune. Steen often puts himself into his paintings as one of the revelers (see paintings above), showing his own love of such things.
However, he always managed to tell a cautionary tale even as he engaged in gleefully exposing the underside of all that wealth. He even painted his self-portrait in a traditional way, showing himself clothed in black and white and looking very much like a respectable, discerning citizen (see portrait just above).
Steen could also tell quite a story in very subtle ways. The painting below is known as The Mayor of Delft or The Burgomaster of Delft and his Daughter. However, as you will hear if you click the link to the Rijksmuseum website, it was discovered that the man was really Steen’s neighbor, a wealthy merchant named Adolf Croeser and his daughter, Catharina. rijksmuseum.nl
There is a lot to unpack in this painting beyond the beauty of the way the people and the setting are represented. Simon Schama in his book, The Embarrasment of Riches, described by its publisher as a work where Schama “explores the mysterious contradictions of the Dutch nation that invented itself from the ground up” (penguinrandomhouse.com), talks about this painting. Schama points out that this wealthy gentleman has had himself painted sitting outside his fine house, with his daughter sporting the latest fashion, done in luxury materials. He looks down toward an elderly woman beggar who leans on a cane with a child (a grandson?) beside her. The key thing is the paper he holds in his hand. That would be her beggar’s permit. Yes, if a resident of a town was in need, that person must get a permit in order to ask for money from other residents in the town, as if being destitute was not already bad enough. Her hand is outstretched, and the wealthy man holds her permit casually in his hand as he considers whether he will contribute or not. Steen’s painting certainly shows off the man’s wealth and the fact that he at least considered being generous, since charity is a Christian virtue. However, it also allows the viewer to see there were hard times for people as well, as not everyone was so well off.
In another story showing the contradictions in their society, Schama talks about what he calls a children’s riot. This happened in the mid-17th century when the city fathers of Amsterdam, one of whom was Dr. Tulp (yes, the one Rembrandt painted in The Anatomy Lesson), decided that the little cookie dough, sugary dolls that were a favorite Chrismas treat for kids were really idolatry and should be banned. Well, throngs of hysterical children having meltdowns in the marketplace made them rethink their new law. They wisely decided that while the ban was still law, there would be no punishment. Contradictions upon contradictions, but what else can you say about a country that built itself on land reclaimed from the sea.
Jan Steen (1626-1679), who helped found the Guild of St Luke for the city of Leiden, along with another of the famous genre painter of the era, Gabriel Metsu, had quite a life. His career as a painter ran alongside his work often as a tavern owner, a job he took on when the art market was depressed. Through it all, he became one of the most famous genre painters, focusing on those uproarious scenes of daily life. He, in a humorous way, communicated the contradictions of the life he saw around him, as well as his own see-saw between being an artist and a barkeep. He showed himself to be not only a skilled portraitist, but someone who could do still life and city scenes all equally well and in rich vibrant colors. Throughout it all, Steen rolled with the punches, painting, playing the lute, laughing, and giving in to the joys of good drink, music, and dancing.
Paintings used in this post are all in public domain.
Reference works are Simon Schama’s The Embarrassment of Riches, the Rijksmuseum (see link above), and “Jan Havicksz Steen” from the Museo Thyssen, (museothyssen.org).
Marjorie Vernelle is an artist, writer, college professor, and traveler. For more see the Pages at ofartandwine.com. Her author page is at amazon.com and her art at Vernelle Art Boutique vernellestudio.com.
The Embarrasment of a Rich Wine Trade
So what do you do if you are a tiny country, welded together from seven different small countries, mocked by one’s bigger neighbors with such names as the Low Countries or even today, the Netherlands (a moniker for somewhere out there in the nether world) when those “neighbors,” in this case Spain and Portugal, cut you off from being a trade and distribution center? Well, you go direct. That is exactly how the United East India and the Charted West India Companies got their start. The painting above shows Dutch ships for as far as the eye can see bringing in the trading treasures that made the period between 1609 and 1713 the Dutch Golden Age.
Antwerp had been the original European distribution center for all kinds of goods, and was the center of Dutch commerce for a long while. However, when the Spanish ruled the Netherlands, it combined with Portugal to punish the Dutch by only using Antwerp for some supplies. They began operating their distribution network out of Hamburg, Germany, cutting the Dutch out. Of course, the Spanish and the Dutch danced a deadly tango for about 80 years with Spain occupying the Dutch lands and being as repressive as possible. However, the Dutch fought back with the same iron will that they had used to reclaim the land they lived on from the sea. They started their own direct trade to areas outside of Europe. Among the things they traded was wine.
The Dutch looked to France for Bordeaux and Burgundy, which greatly helped the development of the French wine industry. They took advantage of their location to deal in Rhine wines from Germany. They dealt in wines from Greece and in Marsala wine from Italy. To whom did they sell? Well, to the wine starved of England, Sweden, and the Baltics. They also shipped wines (and spirits) to the Far East, mostly to satisfy the demand of those colonials who had stationed themselves there. As for their own population, they brought in sweet Rhine wines. In fact the taste for sweet wines lingers today, as the Dutch population prefers sweeter white wines to red wines. Rieslings, known for levels of sweetness and the sweeter versions of Gewurtztraminer are popular wines there.
However, they were not above manipulating the fermentation process by adding sulphur to stall the process and keep more of the sweetness. This trick was applied during the distruptions of the 30 Years War. The tendency to intervene in the process of winemaking seems to have continued. It was highlighted in a 2016 review exposing all of the odd things that could be found in some Dutch wines. The article ends with a promotion of Balthazar, Handpicked Wines, Home Delivered, as a way of ensuring quality. (See “Wine in the Netherlands, Getting It Right” dutchreview.com
While beer and jenever (Dutch gin) are the drinks of choice along with brandies, there is a growing interest in wines and wine making. Of Art and Wine treated this growing phenomenon in the April 10, 2020, post, “Carel Fabritius’ Beloved Goldfinch and Netherlands Wine.” An article by Cathy Huyghe for Forbes Magazine in 2017 gives a good overview of what is going on there in terms of winemaking (forbes.com).
So yes, the good times rolled for about 100 years. Those white Rhine wines worked mighty well with plates of seafood, as shown here in Claesz’ painting. That is still a good choice today, especially the dry versions of Gewurtztraminer. As for the painting, this Claesz painting itself has something of an overwhelming aspect to it, as the table is filled to overflowing with foods, silverware, the big roemer wine glass, and a knife trimmed with a satin ribbon. It is another portrait of that embarrassment of riches, which, like all life and the items on this table, balances on the edge of finality.
For more on the Dutch Golden Age boiled down to a manageable-sized article, “The Dutch Golden Age” on the Britannica website is a good reference. britannica.com
“The Dutch Wine Trade in the 17th Century” by Aaron Nix-Gomez gives a good overview. hogsheadwine.wordpress.com.
Other articles used for this secton are linked above.
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©marjorie vernelle 2021
Coming Soon: A Woman Painting Against the Odds, plus Wine Cocktails.
Judith Leyster Self-Portrait, 1633
When the great master painters are spoken of, it takes getting to the 20th century before women artists get much mention. However, don’t be fooled. There were a few brave and consequential female painters back in the day. Of Art and Wine takes a look at one of the most notable ones from the 17th century, and in celebration of her courage and confidence (yes, it took that to do what she did), a look at wine cocktails.