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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
Article
Jan Haicksz Steen’s Woman at Her Toilet: “Provocative Innuendos”
Author(s)
Liana De Girolami Cheney
Full-Text PDF
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DOI:10.17265/2159-5836/2017.10.007
Affiliation(s)
SIELAE, Universidad de Coruña, Coruña, Spain
ABSTRACT
Jan Haicksz Steen (1626-1679), a Dutch actor, poet and painter, engaged the viewer with various innuendos and double entendres in his paintings about Woman at Her Toilet. Decoding the conceits introduces the viewer to Dutch artistic astuteness and popular culture. Steen drew the observer into his picture plane through a series of emblematic vignettes. Although he raised questions about cultural mores, morality, and religiosity, none are judgmental. On the contrary, it is the viewer who might or might not articulate a moral judgment according to personal experiences. For Steen, the imagery, filled with complex conceits, is an artistic visual representation to delight the eyes, tantalize the senses, and maybe even spark the intellect.
KEYWORDS
Dutch bedrooms, innuendos, emblematic meaning, cultural mores, music, and vanity symbolism
Cite this paper
References
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Wayne, V. (Ed.). (2017). Shakespeare’s Cymbeline. London: Bloomsbury Arden Shakespeare.
White, C. (2015/2016). Dutch pictures in the collection of Her Majesty The Queen. London: Royal Collection Trust.
Wiseman, M. E., & Chapman, H. P. (2012). Vermeer’s women: Secrets and silence. Cambridge: Fitzwilliam Museum.
Ydema, O. (1991). Carpets and their datings in Netherlandish paintings, 1540-1700. Woodbridge: Antique Collectors’ Club.
Alpers, S. (1983). The art of describing: Dutch art in the seventeenth century. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.
Austern, L. P. (1988). For love’s a good musician: Performance, audition, and erotic disorders in early modern Europe. The Musical Quarterly, 82(3/4), Special Issue: “Music as Heard” (Autumn-Winter), 614-653.
Braun, K. (1983). Alle tot nu toe bekende schilderijen van Jan Steen (All known works by Jan Steen). Rotterdam: Lekturama.
Bruyn, J., & Emmens, J. J. (1956). De zonnebloem abs embleem in een schilderijlijst (The marygold as emblem in paintings). Bulletin van het Rijksmuseum, 4, 3-9.
Burgers, Jan W. J. (2013). The Lute in the Dutch Golden Age: Musical culture in the Netherlands 1580-1680. Amsterdam: Amsterdam Press.
Cats, J. (1635). Spiegel van den Ouden ende Nieuven Tijdt (Mirror of Old and New Tirmes) (Vol. 3). Dordrect: Hendrick van Esch.
Chapman, H. P. et al. (1996). Jan Steen. Painter and storyteller. Washington, DC: National Gallery of Art.
Cheney, L. De G. (1987). The offering of oyster in Dutch genre paintings. Artibus et Historiae, (Spring), 135-158.
de Jongh, E. (1971). Realisme en schijnrealisme in de Hollandse schilderkunst van de zeventiende eeuw (Realism and apparent realism in Dutch paintings of the seventeen century). In H. R. Hoetink et al. (eds.), Rembrandt en zijn tijd (Rembrandrr and his time) (pp. 167-169, 173-175). Brussels: Palais des Beaux Arts.
de Jongh, E. (1974). Grape symbolism in the paintings of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Simiolus, 7, 174-177.
de Jongh, E. (1975/1976). Pearls of virtue and pearls of vice. Simiolus, 8, 69-97.
de Jongh, E. (2000). Questions of meaning: Theme and motif in Dutch seventeenth-century painting (M. Hoyle, Trans. and Ed.). Leiden: Primavera Pers.
de Jongh, E., et al. (1976). Tot lering en vermaak (Early lessons on entertaiment). Amsterdam: Rijksmuseum.
Duffin, C. J. et al. (2013). A history of geology and medicine. Exeter: University of Exeter Medical School.
Franitas, W. (2017). Wily Women? On Sexual Imagery in Dutch Art of the Seventeen Century. In T. Hermans and R. Salverda (Eds.), The revolt of riches: Culture and history of the low countries, 1500-1700 (pp. 220-235). Berkley: University of California Press.
Gudlaugsson, S. J. (1975). De Komedianten bij Jan Steen en zijn tijdgenooten (The comedians in the work of Jan Steen and his contemporaries) (J. Brockway, Trans.). Soest: Davaco.
Hollander, A. (1978). Seeing through clothes. Berkeley: University of California Press.
King, D., & D. Sylvester, (Eds.). (1983). The eastern carpet in the western world from the 15th to the 17th century. London, Arts Council of Great Britain.
Kirschenbaum, B. D. (1977). The religious and historical paintings of Jan Steen. New York: Allenheld and Schram.
Kuretsky, S. D. (1977). Rembrandt at the Threshold. In R. E. Fleischer and S. C. Scott (Eds.), Rembrandt, Rubens and the art of their time: Recent perspectives. University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press.
Lang, H. et al. (1914). Lang’s German-English dictionary of terms used in medicine and the allied sciences. Philadelphia: Blakiston’s Sons & Co.
Lessings, G. E. (1766/1984). The Laocoön: An essay on the limits of painting and poetry (1766) (E. A. McCormick, Trans.). Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.
Lloyd, C. (2004). Enchanting the eye: Dutch paintings of the golden age. London: Royal Collection Enterprises.
Oczko, P. (1976). The scriptures on tiles: Dutch tiles as an example of the biblical culture of everyday in the republic. Werkwinkel, 10(2) (2015), 67-88.
Porteman, K. (1993). From first sight to insight: The emblem in the low countries. The low countries: Arts and society in Flanders and the Netherlands. A year book. Rekkem: Stichting Ons Erfdeel.
Regin, D. (1976). Traders, artists, burghers: A cultural history of Amsterdam in the 17th century. Amsterdam: Van Gorcum.
Ripa, R. (1656/2011). Iconologia of, Uytbeeldinge des verstands (Iconology of the depictions of the mind) (C. Danckerts, Trans.). repr. Charleston, SC: Nabu Press.
Schama, S. (1987). The embarrassment of richness. New York: Alfred A. Knopf.
Shawe-Taylor, D., & Buvelot, Q. (2015). Masters of the everyday: Dutch artists in the age of Vermeer. London: Royal Collection Trust.
Van Veen, O. (1608). Amorum Emblemata, figuris aeneis incisa (Emblems on Love, with engraved images). Antwerp: Henrici Swingenij.
Visscher, R. (1614). Sinnepoppen (Emblems) (Vol.3). Amsterdam: Willem Jansz.
Wayne, V. (Ed.). (2017). Shakespeare’s Cymbeline. London: Bloomsbury Arden Shakespeare.
White, C. (2015/2016). Dutch pictures in the collection of Her Majesty The Queen. London: Royal Collection Trust.
Wiseman, M. E., & Chapman, H. P. (2012). Vermeer’s women: Secrets and silence. Cambridge: Fitzwilliam Museum.
Ydema, O. (1991). Carpets and their datings in Netherlandish paintings, 1540-1700. Woodbridge: Antique Collectors’ Club.