Grammy Departing
by Jolene Lehr
I'm five, proud of my new lunchpail,
and Grammy, bound in blue veins,
asks me if I know what it's like,
her fuzzy upper lip crinkling,
to lose your train of thought-
I blow spit bubbles-
and it's just about to come back?
I tug at her matted felt slipper. She says
Old is that feeling all the time;
If I lie down in the grass
and put my ear to the blades
I can feel the train coming, she says.
Grammy was crazy,
no rails in our neighborhood.
I jiggle the handle to my new lunchpail
and leave her, slouched under patched afghan,
like a chrysalis sack of post-mail
sagging from an old-time rail-side hook.
Virtuoso, Vivacity and Ambiguous Allegory in Frans Snyders' 'The Larder'
by Jolene Lehr
"Larder" [oil on canvas, 80 5/8" x 132 7/8"]
by Frans Snyder
Frans Snyders' (1579-1657) The Larder , not unlike his other still life and game paintings, immediately captures the viewer's attention with its virtuoso charm. Twelve years in the making, the over 6'x11' work, alternatively titled The Game Stall, is a very deliberate, well-conceived, and dense scene of a seventeenth-century Flemish meat market stall, complete with dead swan, deer, boar, birds, hunting dogs, vegetables, fruit, and a butcher in an exchange with a woman. Its grandiose, figure-packed presentation evokes a gripping visceral reaction; even when the eye lights upon something grotesque or discomforting in the piece, such as the boar's split gut directly mid-field at eye level, the compulsion is to keep looking to explore its emotional realism. Although the scene is static (most of the subjects are dead game), the presentation offers the observer the snapshot opportunity to see the inexhaustible details the artist has so exquisitely executed.
Snyders' painting breathes with rich detail in its depiction of animals and Rubenesque people-even the sky is a realistic, swirling blend of blues, grays, and greens. Both the butcher and the woman exhibit particular naturalistic features; although arguably she is more idealized than he, it seems Snyder remained relatively true to the individualistic features of the models sitting for both characters. Snyders' thin brushstrokes and impasto do not betray the artificiality of the painting, and blends of creamy colors achieve a soft, fleshy palpability. His remarkable renderings of feathers, fur, wet substances, and leather drew the attention of other artists such as Rubens and Jordeans.1 Frontal light casts realistic shadows within the field which highlight the fleshy contours of the figures, both human and animal.
As evidence of Snyders' self-conscious technique, the game table is tilted forward to offer the viewer a clearer vision of his talent, but his technique is incongruously obvious because he was not consistent, as evidenced by the more realistically angled table on the right. In addition, the game would not actually stay perched half-falling off the table as it is painted, but, again, this was apparently Snyders' technique to tout his unrivaled talent in the rendering of animals. This also extends the action outward, inducing panic that the slaughtered boar might fall upon the viewer closely inspecting the work. Perhaps because it took so long to complete, some of the painting's proportions are also disjointed, including that of the deer, which disappears underneath the boar without indication of its obscured mass.
In Snyders' support, however, making all the elements cohere with in the work must have been difficult, especially since its twelve-year work span prevented him from keeping a permanent posed arrangement. Otherwise, every few weeks or so for twelve years he would have had to replace rotting fruit and corpses.
Although most of the action is contained within the frame, it does indicate a continuation beyond the viewer's perspective, which grants the painting a sense of realism. The end of every object leads into another object, and the viewer's eye travels continuously around the canvas seeing new things. One may start at the butcher's head, follow his arm down to the pheasant, easily travel to the dog, across her puppies, to the table of game and baskets of fruit with vegetables on the other side of the expansive canvas. Echoes in technique and arrangement give the work this good eye flow, solidarity, and harmony. "Natural" colors resonate to give the painting an earthy wash, for example the gold hue in bowls, fruit, game fur, and human skin tones. Furthermore, similar objects are arranged in couples, (e.g., two people, two dogs, two rabbits, two cocks, two living gray birds and two dead ones).
Likewise, gestures repetitiously stretch out and to the left: arms, paws, dead necks and heads, bird wings and feet all droop and point to the left.
Snyders' arrangement speaks to the typical purpose of the still-life, which came into its own in seventeenth-century Flemish and Dutch paintings.2 Still-life scenes, involving food and/or human interaction with such victuals, often disclose a hidden allegory by using systems of symbols, which I define with the help of Hall's Dictionary of Subjects and Symbols in Art. 3 The most popular paradigms are the secular vanitas allegory, which emphasizes the ephemeral transience of mundane things and the inevitability of death and decay, and the Christian allegory depicting the religious cycle of life by referring to the Passion and Resurrection: life, death, rebirth. Most allegorical interpretations focus on issues of "abundance" showing the preconditions for man's well-being (291).
Because Snyders' The Larder is not overtly prescriptive in its approach and many of its subjects symbolize both extremes of a polarity, the painting could be interpreted on several conflicting levels, including both secular and religious meanings. On one level, the scene could be an allegory for the seasons, on another for the five human senses, and on a higher level for both secular and religious virtues-particularly chastity and prudence-in domestic marriage and Christian vows, respectively. However, this juxtaposition of symbols could create the painting's most integral meaning: black and white, wrong and right, religious and secular existing together to facilitate a harmonious whole through their eternal tensions.
Speciously, The Larder may be an allegory for the four seasons, a logical connection harbored between tangible nature depicted on the canvas and her intangible, but socially and mythically pertinent, cycles. The numerous birds in the scene could allude to spring (48), the display of fruit might evoke summer (134), and the grapes and vines could gesture to autumn (142, 322). However, a symbol for winter, as far as I am aware, is not easily discernible in the painting, a fact which undermines this reading of the symbolism.
Potentially more developed is the allegory of the five human senses in conjunction with some of the four balanced earthly humors/human temperaments. The artist invokes the senses through the matter and medium of his painting alone, tempting the viewer to construct a seductive reality out of his virtuoso renderings. Similarly, as individual brush strokes coalesce to form a cohesive, convincing whole, the human and earthly temperaments reside balanced within the painting. The dogs in the lower right field could stand for smell as well as melancholy (105). The copious birds could refer to the sense of touch or the element of air (48). Hearing is alluded to with the hart in center field on the stall table (289), sight with the eagle (or falcon) hanging on the hooks in the back left-field (110), and taste comprised of the various fruits and vegetables adorning the scene (134). However, this reading, as with the seasonal allegory, does not seem to be complete or forcefully rendered.
Moreover, the most comprehensive allegorical reading must take into account the activity of the humans in the scene. Because the relationship between the man and woman is enigmatic and demands deciphering, it seems to be more integral than simple adornment of the peripheral scene. They might be two servants of the household which owns the larder, it might be a wench purchasing game from the butcher to please her master's exotic tastes, or the interaction could go much deeper. What exactly is the nature of the engagement between them? Although he seems to be beseechingly addressing her-getting her attention by slipping a hand around her outstretched arm-her body is twisted partly away from him and her gaze is averted from his. Is she open to his appeal? What is his appeal? Is it business-like, honest, admonishing, or propositioning?
Clear answers to these questions would seem to unlock the mystery behind the allegory, but, conversely, the allegory itself would clarify the relationship between the humans and establish the message the painter wishes to convey to a voyeuristic audience.
One of the strongest stylistic echoes in the work is between the human couple and the dogs at the bottom right field. Her arms almost exactly match the gesture of the bitch's paws-which curve protectively around her puppies and her chunk of bread, as the woman's fingers light upon the peacock's feathers-and the darker-skinned butcher's advances mimic those of the black dog. Perhaps the animals involved in the scene, such as the dogs and the two gray birds perched on the colander, are parodying the human interaction. Taking a closer look at the symbolism involved in the fauna may elucidate whether the woman should be shunning the man as the bitch bears her fangs to her opposer, or if she should welcome the male gaze.
In addition to the interpretations already mentioned, the image of the dog often accompanies classical hunters, such as Diana, just as Snyders' dogs accompany the gameman and woman. In this capacity, the dog can also stand for fidelity, especially in marriage-as in Jan van Eyck's Arnolfini Wedding (1434)-and faithfulness (105), as is evident in how the bitch is ardently protecting her puppies. However, on the other end of the spectrum, one could also observe that she seems to be more selfishly protective over her own meal than over her unweaned puppies, which are scattered haphazardly around her. With this in mind the dog can also stand for envy, or coventry (105), a version of a cardinal sin. But again, since she is protecting bread, a symbol of the Christian Eucharist (291), she could contrastingly exemplify fidelity to the faith.
Three layers of alternating symbolical themes arise: classical evocations, a promotion of secular domestic virtues, and also a support of Christian imagery and warnings against religious sin. This triple pattern carries through to other elements in the painting.
The swan, one of the most dramatically rendered animals in the scene, draws attention to itself by mirroring the woman's gesture and thereby visually balancing the field. According to Hall, the swan is a symbol of both sacred and profane love developed primarily in fifteenth-century Florentine art. The gorgeous bird is associated classically with Venus (whose chariot was drawn by two swans) and therefore with her maidens of chastity, love, and fertility. Because the swan supposedly served as a resurrective receptacle for deceased poets' souls, loved music, and uttered a beautiful death song, it was also associated with Apollo and the muses (294). The classical Greek story of Leda and the Swan puts The Larder woman's pose in intriguing relief. Leda, wife of King Tyndareus of Sparta, fell in love with Jupiter, was visited by him in the form of a swan, and produced two eggs from the encounter which resulted in four offspring, two of whom were Helen of Troy and Clytemnestra.
In classical images, Leda outstretches her arms to the swan, but chastely half-turns her head away. More popularly in the seventeenth-century Flemish tradition, the swan was used in the depiction of the quip made by the Roman comic dramatist Terence, "Love grows cold without the stimulus of wine and feasting (294)," a thesis which might have greater implications in The Larder. Its prudent observance of abundance, love, faith, virtue, and chastity speaks to both secular and religious credos.
In general, birds may signify the human soul or a mundane cycle of human life, as well as a more Christian reference to the Resurrection. Birds tied to a string (as in the lower left field of The Larder) may b associated with the Virgin Mary or the infant Christ (48). The rooster (if it is indeed among the birds here, which are difficult to identify) alludes to Peter and his denial and repentance, as well as to mundane lust personified (72). The crow is a glossing symbol of hope (79), and the eagle is secular pride as well as an apocalyptic beast foretelling the Ascension (110). But most obvious, as it is extended over three-quarters of the work's central-field, is the peacock, who is joined visually with the woman as she reaches toward it. Secularly, the peacock is a symbol of pride, which is in conflict with the Christian concept of humble immortality that it also signifies (238).
Is the woman pining for Christian virtue but being distracted by the earthly man, or is his attention saving her from some other secular trespass?
Next to the swan, the boar strikes high contrast in its bloody, broken condition. In classical mythology, the terrible Erymanthian boar was captured by Hercules (49), who might be a parallel to Snyders' butcher. Typically, the boar is lust (usually male) personified, sometimes shown trodden underfoot by victorious Chastity (49). Aversions to lust and advocacy of chastity are both mundane and religious themes-as is prudence evoked by the hart (289),-as well as the rabbit's thematic duality as a symbol of both fecundity and the chastity of loving couples (and Venus) versus its alternative interpretation as an emblem of derogatory lust and overabundance (257).
The fruit and vegetables in the picture also strike concordant chords of secular and religious allegory, although they more often indicate alternative warnings against sin and messages of celebration of the faith. The bread and grapes may refer to the Eucharist (291, 142), the apple evokes the Fall of Man (30), the peach truth of heart and tongue (238). Overall, a collection of fruits and vegetables celebrates abundance and charity, while it may also signify gluttony (134). Similarly, flora still on the vine or the vine itself may refer to the faith, the Eucharist, or to sins of gluttony (322). Baskets may represent the charity of Christ and his disciples (41), and the blood stains hearken to the Eucharist, Christian eternalism, man's redemption, or more secular vanitas (49).
Depending on the symbolic structure used to interpret the scene, the man could be associated with Hercules, Apollo or Adam, and the woman with Leda, Venus, Diana, or Eve. She is arrested between a world which may indicate religious or secular chastity and virtue and another of sinful temptation. Snyders might be leaving the interpretation open, strategically allowing an importation of meanings conducive to individual tastes. Swan or boar? Apples or grapes? Classical or contemporary? Christian or mundane? Virtuoso entertainment or weighty lesson? The symbolic palette is ready for the choosing.
End Notes
1. "Frans Snyders," The Concise Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 3rd ed., 1994, <http://www.encyclopedia.com/articles/12026.html> (28 November 1999). "Frans Snyders," Funk & Wagnalls Multimedia Encyclopedia, 2000, <http://www.fwkc.com/encyclopedia/low/articles/12026.html> (28 November 1999).
2. James Hall, Dictionary of Subjects and Symbols in Art. (New York: Harper and Row, 1974), 291.
3. All further parenthetical references refer to page numbers of entries in this dictionary.
Works Cited
"Frans Snyders." The Concise Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia. 3rd ed. 1994. <http://www.encyclopedia.com/articles/12026.html> (28 November 1999).
"Frans Snyders." Funk & Wagnall Multimedia Encyclopedia. 2000, <http://www.fwkc.com/encyclopedia/low/articles/12026.html> (28 November 1999).
Hall, James. Dictionary of Subjects and Symbols in Art. New York: Harper and Row, 1974.