Faith and everyday life
Alexander Coosemans | Flanders 1627-1689 | (Still life) c.1650 | Oil on canvas 58.2 x 83.5cm | Bequest of The Hon. Thomas Lodge Murray Prior, MLC 1892 | Collection: Queensland Art Gallery
Biblical scenes were among the most common subjects in sixteenth- and seventeenth-century European painting. Their content and style, however, could differ markedly depending on whether they were produced for a Roman Catholic or Protestant audience. In Italy, like other Catholic countries, the Church was by far the most important patron and commissioned great numbers of paintings for display inside churches. Conversely, the Dutch Calvinist Church forbade figurative paintings inside its churches, but permitted them in homes – a situation that resulted in the development of a highly profitable private art market.
Dutch and Flemish painting was characterised by the depiction of genre scenes such as village life, still-life painting and domestic interiors. Works such as Jan Breughel the Younger’s Christ calling the disciple Peter casts the life of Christ among the everyday life of a fishing village, while Alexander Coosemans’s (Still life) celebrates the hand of God in the creation of the world by rendering the beauteous bounty of nature in a masterful, illusionistic style. The symbolism of such work was twofold and resided in the objects depicted. The exotic fruit, delicate flowers and sumptuous settings served to remind the viewer of the transient beauty of earthly life. Such pictures also reflected the prosperity of the merchant classes, which established lucrative trade routes with greater Europe as well as with eastern empires such as Indonesia and Ceylon.
By the seventeenth century, the Netherlands had a system of painters’ guilds; a number of artists might work on a single painting, each specialising in specific elements of the composition.
