I had a difficult time choosing what to write about for this assignment, but I eventually settled on Nicolaes Maes’ Woman Plucking A Duck. This painting, at first, seems rather unremarkable: it is only slightly larger than one square foot, the color scheme is generally subdued and without a whole lot of contrast, and the subject of the painting is an innocuous genre scene. It is absolutely a well-executed painting, but my initial reaction was to assume that Maes was trying to mimic Vermeer. This was not an accurate assumption on my part because Vermeer didn’t create his best-known works until after 1656, which is about the time Maes did this painting. The window on the left as a light source and the quiet household setting are reminiscent of Vermeer, as are the soft value transitions throughout the space that give the lighting an ethereal quality. However, the figure is depicted in very high contrast against the space she inhabits. Maes didn’t approach the figure or the objects in the foreground with the same gentle, almost hazy style as he did the background.
What is truly exciting for me in this painting is the cat. Cats have their own unique personalities, but also species-specific quirks, just like humans, and I enjoy seeing artists’ portrayals of cats. Maes has this cat crouching partially in shadow, creeping up to examine the dead duck and deciding whether or not it is necessary to pounce. His paws are planted flat on the ground with his weight on them, and his ears and eyes are fully attentive. This is how real cats behave when they investigate something new. However, artists don’t always choose to reflect the inner essence of their feline painting subjects. For example, in one of the rooms preceding the one where Maes’ painting is, there is a painting of the Holy Family by Dosso Dossi in which a cat is included in the foreground for symbolism. Dossi’s depiction of the cat isn’t “bad,” it just fits his symbolic purpose better. Dossi’s cat appears very flat because little value has been incorporated into the form, the hind paws don’t seem to actually connect with the floor, the body is rigid and geometric, and the tail is simply a black line. Contrasting these two painters’ depictions of cats highlights the roles they have in art as important symbols or as real, active subjects.
While the light source loosely helps direct our eye through this piece, the placement of warm reds and oranges also draws the viewer down along a path from the top left corner. These reds and oranges are the only colors that stand out against the calm overall darkness in the scene. The colors lead us downwards from the house’s outside wall to focus on the woman plucking the duck, then across the floor where the cat is. Instead of contrasting harshly with the dark, gently rendered background inside the house, these colors enhance the serene quality of the painting because their application is so controlled. The orange of the floor does not dominate the scene, it dissolves into grey shadows at the corners. Because the space of the room seems to recede even more when brighter colors are set against it, the darkness of the space is made extremely compelling and convincing. Highlights on the woman’s head, dress, and on the cat’s face are the most highly contrasting areas, and these may serve a symbolic purpose or simply draw attention to the figures, or just simply be the logical result of the light source. Displaying this painting in a very well-lit room full of other paintings that, in general, are more brightly colored, also creates a contrast that invites the viewer deeper inside the fictional space. If the painting wouldn’t normally stand out, it does now, because it is like a little tunnel out of the gallery into a different place. I think this was a clever way to display this painting and help viewers appreciate its contemplative tone.
The age of this work, and most of the work we see in any museum, is something that always amazes me. Maes’ painting is about 355 years old. While there are absolutely other things in the PMA that are much older, this is still old enough to be mind-boggling. People through the years cared about this painting enough to keep it intact and preserve it for 355 years, and it seems like they did a good job. There are countless works of art that have not been so lucky, which makes those that have survived even more special. We struggle with this in contemporary art and society: the question of how special works really are when there are so many created, and how many people can afford to preserve.
Here are links to the PMA site pages for each painting I talked about:
http://www.philamuseum.org/collections/permanent/49271.html?mulR=1093|3
http://www.philamuseum.org/collections/permanent/101942.html?mulR=30501|1
