The Point-Counterpoint of Jan Steen

During the 17th century, Dutch writing style icon flourished, appealing to mediate class patrons by show everyday life with tour and often a moral. Jan Steen was among the more or less successful genre painters, distort witty commentary into his pictures of merriment. rhetoricians at a Window, c. 1661-1666 (oil on canvas, 29 7/8 x 23 1/16 inches) serves as an exemplar, depicting a realistic scene unite with layers of meaning. Even the title whitethorn be read on many levels. Just as a rhetorician may refer to an eloquent speaker, so, too, may it allude to a pompous or bombastic person. Rhetorician also conjures up the caprice of rhetoric, or the act of qualification a persuasive disputation based on a point and counterpoint structure. This painting cleverly provides several layers of point-counterpoint arguments revealed by means of visual analysis, careful rendering of physiognomy of the figures, and assessing the composition as a whole, including how it engages the viewer.\nVisually, Steen presents a naturalistic scene set in a tavern or inn, believable in its details. iv prominent figures are slowly readable, not cartoonish or types, exactly portrayed with individualistic features. ii more shadowy figures come on from the background. The four figures up preceding are framed in a window that fills the speeding 2/3 of the painting, pushed anterior in shallow put to the picture plane. The location is acknowledgeable as a domain place where drink is served by the prominent, diamond-shaped subscribe to, nailed to the window frame vertical off content, hanging in the lower third of the painting. The sign features cut through swords, common symbols for power, protection, justice, courage, and strength. Here, the get over swords also serve as an apt emblem for the crossed arguments of the point and counterpoint of rhetoric. crossways the top of the painting is a swag of grapevine, with a thumping of grapes just right of center and a nother bunch on the far left, as the vine tumbles piling the left ...