The Point-Counterpoint of Jan Steen

During the 17th century, Dutch music genre characterisation flourished, appealing to spirit class patrons by depict everyday life with enchantment and often a moral. Jan Steen was among the virtually successful genre painters, distort witty commentary into his pictures of merriment. speechifiers at a Window, c. 1661-1666 (oil on canvas, 29 7/8 x 23 1/16 inches) serves as an exemplar, depicting a naturalistic scene have with layers of meaning. Even the title may be read on many levels. Just as a rhetorician may refer to an eloquent speaker, so, too, may it allude to a papal or bombastic person. Rhetorician also conjures up the thought of rhetoric, or the act of devising a persuasive principle based on a point and counterpoint structure. This painting cleverly provides several layers of point-counterpoint arguments revealed through and through visual analysis, careful recital of physiognomy of the figures, and assessing the composition as a whole, including how it engag es the viewer. \nVisually, Steen presents a naturalistic scene set in a tavern or inn, believable in its details. quartette prominent figures are slow readable, not cartoonish or types, exclusively portrayed with individualistic features. cardinal more shadowy figures publish from the background. The four figures up expect are framed in a window that fills the top(prenominal) 2/3 of the painting, pushed out front in shallow position to the picture plane. The location is acknowledgeable as a man place where drink is served by the prominent, diamond-shaped concentrate, nailed to the window frame secure off join, hanging in the lower third of the painting. The sign features pass swords, common symbols for power, protection, justice, courage, and strength. Here, the cross swords also serve as an apt emblem for the crossed arguments of the point and counterpoint of rhetoric. across the top of the painting is a swag of grapevine, with a flock of grapes just right of cente r and another bunch on the far left, as the vine tumbles ingest the left ...