Comparing Dutch Masterpieces at the Met Exhibit

When I went on the trip to the Metropolitan Museum of art, I was mostly drawn to two exhibits which: “European Paintings” as well as “In Praise of Painting: Dutch Masterpiece at the Met”. Since I am of Dutch descent, I decided to choose two paintings from the exhibit “In Praise of Painting: Dutch Masterpiece at the Met”. The two paintings I decided on are Still life with Lobster and Fruit, painted by the artist Paulus Bor as well as The Disillusioned Medea done by the artist Abraham van Beyeren.

Both paintings I chose are different styles since Still life with Lobster and Fruit is of course a still life painting whilst the unnamed painting is a portrait of a woman sitting on the floor.

The still life painting’s medium is oil on wood which gives a sort of grainy effect on the canvas. This painting traces back to an unknown date in the early 1650s. The still life focuses on a table overloading with food.

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There is one full lobster which is still intact without being cracked open to eat placed in the left-hand end of the table. To the right of the lobster, there is an assortment of fruit. The first fruit I notice is to the immediate right of the lobster, which is either a grapefruit or orange cut at the end and peeled halfway into a spiral. The peel of this citrus fruit looks like it had been sitting on the table for a long time, as the texture of the peel looks leathery and old, hinting that it may not be fresh.

Next to the citrus fruit, is a pair of peaches and a lone peach underneath them.

The lone peach looks as if it is about to fall of the table. There are grapes that look like they are a bit old, since they have that wrinkled texture grapes get after a few days of sitting out in room temperature. The grapes are placed in between a melon as well in a fruit basket behind the melon. The melon is interesting to me, because it is cut open in a way that it resembles a labia, which I’m not sure was intentional, but something I took note of. The table has two golden objects, one that looks like a tray knocked over on its side, and another more decorative looking object standing perfectly straight up. There is also a half-filled champagne glass in the back towards the left-hand side. The first thing I noticed was how messy the objects on the table were arranged. It’s almost as if the artist just threw everything together on the table randomly as a lot of the objects are just hanging off the table.

“The Disillusioned Medea”, by Abraham van Beyeren has a medium with oil paint as well, however, oil on canvas. The main focus of the painting is the woman, who is very fair with rosy cheeks and one breast exposed. She is leaning against what looks to be a platform connected to a statue directly behind her to her right. She is dressed in a blue satin or perhaps silk dress with a white blouse-like top. The top of the dress drapes over her left shoulder which in turn exposes her breast on that side. The texture of the dress almost looks fountain like since it softly waves down her body, enhancing her curves. She is sitting on a red pillow with golden tassels which has a golden sash to match the tassels on the pillow. She is holding a wand in her left hand.

The information given at the museum says that the statue behind the woman to the right is of Diana, Goddess of the hunt. The statue of the goddess has her holding a weapon which looks sword-like which also resembles the wand-like stick the woman in the painting is holding. The statue has a flower lay draping around the goddess’s neck. There is a floral lay draping on the platform directly in front of the second statue to the left, which closely resembles the lay around the statue’s neck. The second statue is not as detailed as the first said statue in that it is more in the background. This statue looks more like a Greek column with two infants climbing up. There is a woman at the bottom of the statue, which only details a soft face and stops at her breasts.

The two paintings have very different lighting as well as coloring. The “Still Life with Lobster and Fruit” is much darker and shadowy in color in comparison to “The Disillusioned Medea”. Although dark, the still life has light shining from the left whilst “The Disillusioned Medea” has light entering from the right. “Still Life with Lobster and Fruit” is predominantly warm tones, with rich red tones in the lobster, peaches and berries in the fruit basket, as well some red tones in the creases of the table cloth. There is a noticeable presence of golden hues throughout the painting. The light shining on the table from the left reflects off the golden china pieces which in turn makes the fruit and lobster give off a glowing, golden hue. The golden light enhances the red tones in the fruit and lobster, which gives off a beautiful opaque glow. In “The Disillusioned Medea”, The woman posing as Medea is painted predominantly with cool tones.

The woman posing as Medea has lovely milky white skin with rosy cheeks, giving her a youthful complexion. The background of the painting has smoky, grayish, olive green hues which contrast the fair complexion and the blue dress worn by the woman in the painting. The light in this painting is much brighter, and seems as if it was painted during late morning or early afternoon since the light is much clearer. Both paintings have browns mixed into the background surrounding the main focus of the piece. However, Still Life with Lobster and Fruit has much deeper browns, with red and golden hues, whilst The Disillusioned Medea has more light brown tones with grayish olive hues.

The title each artist chose for their paintings conveys a point or a story in their` own unique way. Paulus Bor’s painting Still Life with Lobster and Fruit is a more obvious title which represents a still life of lobster and an assortment of fruit, however, to me gives a much richer meaning to his painting. The gold china along with the lobster and assortment of fruit to me represents wealth. I’m not entirely sure how expensive lobster was during the early 1650s, but in today’s standards lobster is an expensive delicacy. This can also be said with fruit, since assorted fruit varying in seasonal availability tends to be expensive. In addition to the imported fine gold china, this painting seems to give a feel of riches and glutton, since the artists arranges the goods places on the table as overflowing and abundant.

Abraham van Beyeren’s painting, The Disillusioned Medea captures a woman who looks like she is longing for something. I don’t know much about the back story of Medea, so I was not able to piece together the connection between the woman in the painting and the title. However, I believe the artist wanted to convey the story with the woman posing as Medea. She is staring into the distance with an expression of longing which indicates a story of sadness and isolation. The way she is dressed in a beautiful blue silk gown and surrounded by Greek style statues suggests she is of higher class. Thus, in both paintings, I sense a symbol of wealth with the use of silk in van Beyeren’s painting and the expensive food and china in Bor’s painting.

While I was analyzing the two paintings side by side, I couldn’t help but compare them to another Dutch artist who was relevant around the same time: Johannes Vermeer. The piece I chose by Vermeer is Woman Holding Balance. The lighting entering from the left slightly resembles the lighting in Still Life with Lobster and Fruit. In Vermeer’s painting the light reflects off the woman, while in Bor’s, the light reflects off the food and china. There is a table in both paintings, both filled with objects. The light in both paintings enhances the central focus of the piece: Vermeer’s focus is of the woman whilst Bor focuses on the food and fine china. When comparing Vermeer’s painting to van Beyren’s The Disillusioned Medea, I immediately looked at the women in each painting. Both women are fair and wearing blue and white. The mustard colored skirt in Vermeer’s painting closely resembles the sash worn by the in van Beyren’s painting. The light reflecting off the woman in Vermeer’s painting gives her an angelic appearance which closely resembles the youthful angelic beauty the woman in van Beyren’s painting captures. Though all three of the paintings have different and unique styles true to the artist who painted them, it was interesting to analyze all three and find some similarities in lighting and coloring.

While studying the two paintings I chose from the museum, I took notice in some similar objects each artist uses in their work. The statue to the left of the woman in The Disillusioned Media closely resembles the china standing upright in Still Life with Lobster and Fruit. They both have a thin base with a wide midsection and a pointed top. The china to me, is much more noticeable since the color is gold and it shines. However, I believe they both may hold a symbol of culture and wealth. Since china is imported from china, the piece in Bor’s painting tells a story of history with Chinese culture and exchanging of goods. With the statue in van Beyren’s painting, the presence of culture and history is also present with the statue.

I can only assume that the statue relates to Greek culture just by analyzing it in the painting. Both objects are not something I correlate with Dutch culture, so I find their presence interesting since they add a historical sense of history from two very different countries. The next similarity I notice was the placement of the woman and the lobster. They are both more to the left in each painting, however, this detail does not take away their presence and significance in the piece. The lobster is obvious red, a regal color. the size of the lobster is also one of the bigger items placed on the table. Like the red in the lobster, the woman’s red cheeks contrasting her pale skin represents a sense of wealth and high class.

The two paintings I chose during my trip to The Metropolitan Museum of Art at first were two completely different styles of paintings.