The plaque demonstrates the trompe l’ceil (deceive the eye) technique, a style often used in old master paintings to captivate and fool the viewer. For Delft potters, they probably took inspiration from seventeenth and eighteenth century still life paintings with highly realistic details such as notes, drawings, and letters. As can be seen on this plaque, the overlapping scenes with depth and realism create an optical illusion. The composition and subject are reminiscent of the popular Delft dishes and bowls painted with playing cards. One such plate is illustrated in Lahaussois 1994, p. 80, no. 99, who comments on p. 96 that it was the Delft potters who can be credited with the idea of trompe l’oeil decoration of playing cards on ceramics, a style that became popular in the Netherlands from about 1730. It continued in popularity particularly on French faience throughout the second half of the eighteenth century, and on faïence fine (refined cream-colorer earthenware) and English porcelain in the early nineteenth century.

Needlework was a common activity featured in Dutch art and Delftware, and is seen on the present plaque and accompanying print. Moralists often praised the housewife’s ability to do needlework as it represented diligence and a woman’s domestic virtue. The young woman in the foreground is married, symbolized by her clasped hand on her cap. In contrast to the print where she wears modest clothing, the Delft plaque painter applied a more detailed and sumptuous dress. The woman is intensely focused on her work, and represents a perfect depiction of femininity and domesticity. Although genre paintings are intended to represent reality, the depiction of domestic virtue in seventeenth century Dutch genre paintings is probably not an accurate representation of everyday life.

The blue and white oval plaque, from circa 1740, was made in Amsterdam. It is painted with a merry company playing music and enjoying wine. A fashionable lady is seated between a man playing a violin from a musical score and a gesticulating lady who is holding another score. They are seated at a cloth-covered table, set with a wine glass and bottle on a tray. Although the interior is composed of a typical Dutch checkered tile floor, it lacks a Dutch feel because of the draped wall supporting a colonnade before a classical building in the distance. The earthenware painter was probably inspired by classical landscapes, rather than realistic Northern European interiors. Interestingly, the decoration on the plaque combines music and wine, which was a frequent combination in paintings and often signifies seduction. Of course, the relationship between music and love has long existed in art, and the use of musical harmony as a metaphor for harmony between two lovers was common. Perhaps the gentleman and a lady in the scene are in an amorous relationship, as suggested by the music making and the bottle of wine. However, these scenes do not always contain a hidden message, and many times the meanings are lost today.

An engraving after a painting by Adriaen van Ostade was the inspiration for this lively scene. Two different print sources may have served as models for the Delft artist: the etching of ‘The Country-Fair’ by Joannes Visscher and ‘Peasant Couple Dancing in Front of an Inn,’ by Willem de Broen. The Delft artists were masters of adaptation. The scene on this plaque, more frequently found painted in the horizontal shape of the print, is painted vertically. The painter has also cleverly transformed the exterior scene to an interior setting by adding a tile floor and drapery at the top.

Condition

• Rim abrasions

Already in the seventeenth century Holland was well known for all their overseas activities. The VOC was of great influence on the lives of the citizens in Holland: many people had to work in the shipbuilding industry, had to work at sea, or in the new territories overseas. Furthermore many exotic treasures, both raw materials and works of art, were taken by the skippers to the Republic. The influence of these artworks, but also due to the travelogues and images, is clearly shown in the arts and crafts of the Lower Countries of that time, as well as on many pieces of Dutch Delftware. Such as this plaque on which many ships are depicted. The location of the ships is rather confusing, since there is a typical Dutch windmill located among the buildings on the far bank, but at the same time an Asian pagode is shown. Possibly, as we see often, the painter used a combination of both Western (in this case Dutch) and Asian imagery in the object.