D8226. Blue and White Shaped Oval Plaque

描述

Note
This blue and white oval-shaped plaque, from circa 1745, shows an interior scene of two ladies seated beneath a draped window and sewing a garment. At their feet is a basket of cloth, a yardstick, scissors and a sleeping cat. On the right is a tea table set with a teapot, a bowl, two cups and saucers near a kettle on the hearth with plates lining the chimney above. The decoration on this plaque is taken from the engraving, Two Women Sewing, by Geertruydt Roghman (1625-1651/57). It is the first from a series of five feminine occupations or Women at Domestic Chores, dating to circa 1648-50, which includes images of women ruffling, cooking, spinning and cleaning. The series was both designed and engraved by Roghman herself and published by Claes Jansz. Visscher II. The Delft painter took some liberties in designing the plaque. The candleholder situated at the left on the print was excluded, and several additions were made. The artist included conventional Dutch imagery of the interior for the contemporary audience, such as the draped curtains, the window and the cat on the checkered tile floor. The artist also added elements, such as the tea table with cups and saucers, a small teapot, the tiled fireplace surround with a water kettle on the hearth and plates or dishes on the chimney piece. The busy composition was meant to suggest domestic unity, however it also resulted in a loss of accurate proportions, as in the minuscule door at the left.

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.