Vase of Flowers in a Window Niche

Flower vase in a window niche is the title of an oil painting on wood by the Flemish painter Ambrosius Bosschaert the Elder, which was built around 1620 and is assigned to the Baroque. The 64 cm high and 46 cm wide portrait of a rich bouquet is on display in The Hague's Mauritshuis. This is art history to a botanical flower painting, a still life, the scientific detail with a variety of flowers shows, but also offers a number of symbolic motifs and possible interpretations.

• 2.1 spatiality effect
• 2.2 plasticity
• 2.3 light

• 3.1 Scientific and meticulous presentation
• 3.2 Religious interpretations
• 3.3 The wealth of Holland

Description

The painting shows a bouquet of flowers standing in a glass vase in a stone window niche. The eye of the beholder it falls from an imaginary space outside, where the distant landscape reveals indistinct.

Vase

The vase, which is located in the center of the image on a window niche standing, is made from brown and green glass, the stalks of the individual flowers can be seen through the glass. The basic shape of the vase is a circle upwards to its diameter expands. In the lower third of it is richly decorated, blue gemstones, and partially gilded faces and ornaments decorate the axisymmetric vase.

Bouquet

The bouquet is shown very lush. Dominant types of flowers are tulips and roses, but in addition there are also Tagetes, white and blue columbines, blue and white irises, two Adonis, forget- me-nots, daffodils, cyclamen, grape hyacinths, yellow Fritillaria, horned violets, lilies of the valley, a red and white striped anemone, a Blue star, a marigold and a fritillary. The foliage of the flowers is in contrast to the bright bright flower colors kept quite dark, the flowers are in between so arranged that almost all are fully visible, hardly a flower part is covered. A viewer, who looked at the bouquet from the opposite side, the flowers could barely perceive and saw only leaves. The flower colors are yellow, white, red and blue. Two caterpillars, a fly and a dragonfly inhabit the bouquet, on a sheet at the lower left two round water drop shine in two leaves at the bottom right caterpillars have eaten several holes.

Window niche

The window niche is an open arched windows, just big enough to accommodate the bouquet in it. The left side of smooth masonry is complete, the right partially shaded. The profile edge of the window stands out slightly from the surrounding masonry. In addition to the vase are on the window sill left a carnation and even closed bud, next to two drops of water. Law of the vase sits a fly on the windowsill, next to it are two snail shells. The objects on the window sill are arranged such that they become larger from the inside to the outside. On the profile edge of the window sill is found almost at the left edge, the monogram of the artist.

Landscape

The background landscape is also and above divided into the areas below the horizon. The lower part is divided into two by the vase. The sky is blue, merging into the distance in a diffuse, hazy white, isolated are small, white clouds in the sky. The landscape in the lower part is green, wooded and traversed by waters. The left-hand part acts closer to the viewer, hilly and situated higher than the right side. On both sides of the vase a church building is seen in each case, the right is significantly farther than the left.

Means of design

With various creative means Bosschaert has created a strong illusion of depth and space effect in this painting.

Spatial effect

The spatial effect of the window recess is achieved by a centrally perspective view, as well as by light and shadow. The arrangement of the hilly landscape in the lowest part of the open window of the impression that one of a very tall building, possibly a castle tower, looks arises. In the bouquet space is mainly achieved by contrasts and overlays. In many cases overlap leaves, flowers and stems, thus creating the effect of a front and rear mess. The colorful flowers thereby penetrate against the relatively dark green of the foliage in the foreground.

Plasticity

The sculptural effect of the individual objects in the painting is very pronounced in comparison to the spatial effect and is achieved primarily through the very detailed design of vase, bouquet and the objects on the window sill, as well as by fine shadows. The shaded areas remain bright enough that you can still see all the fine details. Exceptions represent the dark green of the foliage and the shaded part of the masonry, but that is already painted completely smooth and without details. The plasticity of the vase and especially the water droplets generated by gloss effects and reflections, in the case of water droplets give this exercise a strong trompe- l'oeil effect, that is, the viewer perceives the water drops do not as a part of the image, but as genuine.

Light

The bay window facing outside, the scenery outside the imaginary interior is in bright light. Nevertheless, in the window niche is not the expected incidence of light from the outside, but rather a lighting of the interior, can be seen from the viewer perspective from the left. The light is so strong that the left side of the window recess completely, the right is to a large extent in the shade. Clearly, the light from the inside especially at the bright colors of the flowers, it acts as though the bouquet deliberately lit.

Background levels of interpretation

The bouquet is understood both as a scientific representation as well as a symbol of great wealth: Almost all the flowers depicted were at the time rarities and rare breeds. This is particularly true to the tulips that were then still uncommon around which a highly speculative market developed, which culminated around 1635 in the so-called Great Tulip Mania.

Scientific and meticulous presentation

Apparently Bosschaert deliberately wanted to make flower portraits. The individual flowers are painted in great detail with scientific precision. The arrangement was such that as all the flowers are fully seen, but this is not dealt with a realistic arrangement of the entire bunch. Individual flowers in the upper part of the bouquet could because of their stem length, the water in the vase did not reach the overall bouquet is so lush that the vase in reality would get overweight and tipped over. The individual flowers hand, correspond to the smallest detail of reality.

Religious interpretations

Besides the scientific presentation and the socio-political importance as a status symbol, the painting contains additional, especially religious messages. Once are colorful flowers in such magnificent array symbol of the perfection and beauty of creation; the painting could be understood as praise of creation. In particular, the assignment of lily, iris, rose, columbine, lilies and violets for mariological symbolism allows interpretations in terms of purity, immaculate conception, but also pain and humility of the Mother of God. On the other hand, the bouquet is also a reminder not to forget the transience of physical beauty of sheer vanity. This so-called vanitas motif (Latin vanitas = vanity ) comes into the already -eaten rose petals, the crawling caterpillars in the bouquet, as well as in the level and the flies expressed. Caterpillars are a symbol of change and impermanence, the flies to their family at that time also, the dragonfly has been counted, symbolizing destruction and decay, so ultimately the devil. Bosschaert hidden but also an indication of hope for salvation from the damnation in his painting: The carnation is a symbol of Jesus Christ, the bud a sign of new life. In Holland at that time so kind of moral- religious messages were not uncommon, and they were recognized and understood by the population. Bosschaert and his contemporaries hid their messages in still life, as the dominant Calvinist belief that figurative representation of religious subjects prohibited, but people were looking for ways to give their faith and pictorial expression.

The wealth of Holland

The representation of such exquisite flowers in a clear vase is expensive clarification of wealth in Holland that era. This wealth had its origin in the trade, which in the distance in the picture also emerges as a reference: The snail shells on the windowsill come from the waters around India. Even in the seemingly endless expanse of the landscape in the background the subject distance is again significantly.

Formation and characteristics

Bosschaert was certainly not a real role model for his bouquet on a bay window in front of him. The flowers shown have different flowering times, in the present compilation as could an ostrich not even exist then.

" But the artist presents more than just the mere copy of a given by nature the prototype. His flower ensemble embodies an ideal state that nature can not bring in this form. No rose blooms when the tulips open their chalices "

It is believed that he had developed a large pool of representations of individual flowers, which he composed his pictures. For not only is the fact that the proportions of the individual flowers are mutually partially incorrect, but also the occurrence of nearly identical flowers in several of his pictures, for example, the exhibited in the Louvre in Paris bouquet. Bosschaert is considered one of the founders of Flemish painters dynasty, who dealt almost exclusively with flower and fruit still life. As a special feature on the flower vase in a window niche is that it was the first, but in any case one of the first Blumenstillleben well that was painted in front of an open background. Previously such images had arisen always against a plain, closed background.