AELST, Willem van

Willem van Aelst signed and dated this “Ontbijtje” (breakfast piece).

The present painting, treats one of Willem van Aelst’s favourite themes of still-lifes of flowers. In this composition the roses, carnations, thistles, peonies, the green leaves and stems tumble out of the glass vase in a haphazard fashion. This arrangement gives the subject volume and creates a natural setting. Van Aelst has silhouetted the objects against a dark background. The flowers, glass vase, velvet and the marble are bathed in a sharp light from the left which accentuates the textures and colours of these lustrous items.

Suggested listening (streaming mp3, 7 minutes):

Piotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky: The Nutcracker, ballet suite, op. 71, Waltz of the Flowers

Van Aelst painted fruit still-lifes for the Medici family in Italy and from 1659 onwards had begun to specifically focus on painting various arrangements of grapes and peaches, such as the present work which depicts peaches, chestnuts and grapes in an overturned basket resting on a partially draped marble ledge.

Willem van Aelst was a still-life specialist prized for his lovely flower and fruit pieces, and he has been mentioned as a sometime follower of Kalf. He also painted a number of elegant game pictures in a clear light. They show close views of dead prey - occasionally accompanied by killed poultry - that include scrupulously painted guns, hunting bags and horns, bells and other gear of the sport. As most trophy pieces they were designed as representative pictures of the sport, not records of the spoils of a specific hunt.

In this picture the painter displayed the finely worked equipment of the huntsman on a marble ledge: a velvet hunting bag with chamois strap, trimmed with gold embroidery and fringes, and a tasseled horn. Above it he suspended the exquisite catch of a fat partridge and three small game birds. The exquisite blue of the velvet contains the expensive pigment lapis lazuli, which yields ultramarine colour when ground. It was imported from China. Van Aelst’s lavish use of it reinforces the preciousness of the arrangement and confirms its destination in a wealthy home. Most Dutch painters used cheaper, less stable blue pigments.

Suggested listening (streaming mp3, 3 minutes):

Carl Maria von Weber: Der Freisch�tz, Act III: Jagerchor

Above the marble ledge the painter suspended the exquisite catch of a fat partridge and three small game birds.

This painting depicts a still-life of roses, a carnation and a sunflower in a glass vase, on a marble ledge.

Willem van Aelst painted a large variety of still-lifes including fruit still-lifes, flower bouquets in vases, as well as trophies of the hunt, banquet still-lifes, and also forest floor still-lifes in the tradition of his contemporary van Schriek.

The painting depicts a still-life with roses, tulips and other flowers resting on a ledge. It demonstrates the elegance, refinement, and technical brilliance cultivated during the painter’s formative years in Italy.

The ostentatious display of killed animals after hunt had a representational and symbolic function. The motif of a dead animal hanging upside down - an actual hunting custom - had been taken over by 17th century Dutch painters from earlier artists such as Jacopo de’ Barbari and Lucas Cranach the Elder.

Suggested listening (streaming mp3, 9 minutes):

Joseph Haydn: The Seasons, Part 3 Autumn, aria and chorus (Hunters’ chorus)

The picture depicts a still-life with peaches and grapes fallen from an over-turned basket, resting on a partly-draped marble ledge. The painting has been reduced from a vertical to horizontal format, resulting in the loss of the signature.

This drawing is a folio of the Abrams Album (named after the donor) in the Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Willem van Aelst’s drawing of a gorget and a backplate is an example of the supposedly Delft tradition of vanitas still-life.

These peaches, grapes, and figs may be identified as products of the Medici estates.

This painting is a typical example of the speciality of Willem van Aelst: still-lifes of fruits and objects.

Intense colours characterize the still-lifes of Van Aelst, who worked for a time in France and Italy. In this painting, which was commissioned by Cardinal Giovan Carlo de’ Medici, the intense blue of the table-cloth catches one’s eye. The large crystal vase in the centre of the composition was probably in the possession of the Medici family. The painter placed his signature and the date on the hem of the white tablecloth: W.A.Aelst. 1652.

Van Aelst’s still-lifes are infinitely various. Here, he perhaps suggests the category’s classical roots: the Greek painter Zeuxis’s grapes, so lifelike that birds tried to eat them, and the split pomegranate recalling Demeter’s bargain, and announcing winter’s return, as Proserpina descends to Hades once more.

This princely still-life is one of several variations on a theme made for Grand Duke Ferdinando II de’ Medici and his brothers. The good things in life here include natural beauty, crafted artisanship, and a combination of the two in the adorned nautilus shell.

In addition to fruit and flower still-lifes with cool colour harmonies, van Aelst also enjoyed painting elegant hunting weapons and dead animals placed in a dark corner by a wall for rich clients. One example is this still-life.

A dead partridge is hanging by its leg from a piece of string. Its wings and feathers, which are grey with brownish patches, open up towards us at the bottom like a fan. The fly on the light-coloured feathers has an illusionist effect: disproportionately large in size, it belongs to the realistic level of the picture rather than its fictitious one, so that the viewer is given the impression that a real fly is crawling across the painting. The bird’s head has been pressed slightly towards the middle by the blue hunting bag with the golden fringe and the adjustable shoulder strap which is lying on the stone shelf. Beside the partridge a hunting horn, also adorned with tassels, and a powder bottle have been hung up. The shiny, metallic grey of the hunting horn has been painted by the artist with a highly sensitive eye for the different hues of the bird’s fluffy, grey feathers on its breast and as a contrast to the grey of the wings which merges into white towards the middle.

But, although the bird has been rendered with almost unsurpassable precision, it has an odd abstract quality. It seems as if, in its material consistency, it had undergone a synthesis with the implement of civilization by which it was pursued - as if it was no longer merely part of nature and a victim, but an aesthetically refined and ennobled form of existence.

Suggested listening (streaming mp3, 9 minutes):

Antonio Vivaldi: Concerto in B flat major RV 362 op. 8 No. 10 (Hunt)

Although Van Aelst is most admired for elegant still-lifes with fine glassware, silver vessels, fruit and flowers, this representation of humbler motifs must be considered one of his finest early work. The subject here is a ‘vanitas’, with a recently extinguished candle set in a holder on a stone ledge, and a mouse nibbling at walnut crumbs.

Although mice occur in 17th-century still-lifes (e.g. in paintings by Abraham van Beyeren, Georg Flegel, Jacob Vosmaer), the specific combination of a mouse and an expired candle is unique.

Van Aelst painted this still-life (signed and dated lower right) in 1650, the year in which he entered the service of Ferdinand II de’Medici, grand duke of Toscany, and of his brother, Cardinal Carlo de’Medici. It is possible, that this painting was executed for the cardinal, who was the artist’s main patron in Florence.

In this still-life Van AElst continues the tradition of fruit and flower painting that flourished in Delft from the early 1630s onward with the work of Balthasar van der Ast, Gillis de Bergh, and Evert van Aelst, Willem’s uncle.

Willem van Aelst was a still-life specialist prized for his lovely flower and fruit pieces, and he has been mentioned as a sometime follower of Kalf. The eminent flower painter Rachel Ruysch was his pupil.

This floral still-life has symbolic significance. The blooms, shown in all their glory, already imply the fading and dying that is to come, a reminder of the transience of beauty. A similar idea is communicated by the holes eaten in the leaves, while the open pocket-watch serves to suggest the passage of earthly time, as well as standing more generally for the importance of good measure. Yet the hour cannot be read from the face of the watch, and this might suggest that time is not passing, that the painter has brought time to a standstill in his work, overcoming the very transience of things.

Suggested listening (streaming mp3, 2 minutes):

Franz Schubert: Blumenlied (Flower Song) D 431