The Frick's Scottish National Gallery Exhibit & A Possible Reference To a Vleughels- Watteau Competition Over a Woman

The Frick's Scottish National Gallery Exhibit & Intimations of a Vleughels-Watteau Competition Over a Woman

From the spiritual realm of Botticelli's painting, Diego Velázquez’s Old Woman Cooking Eggs brings us emphatically down to earth in the everyday world of seventeenth-century Spain — the Golden Age of art and literature in which Velázquez — the future first court painter to Philip IV — would play a central role. Before being called in 1623 to the court of Madrid, Velázquez had established a reputation in his native Seville as a painter of religious images and of genre scenes of humble subject matter. This kitchen scene, painted in 1618 when the artist was just eighteen or nineteen years old, showcases his extraordinary talent for illusionistic representation. Watteau

Within a dark interior, light and shadow glide across the surfaces of an array of regional wares in metal, ceramic, wicker, and glass. In the earthenware pan, the glistening eggs appear to congeal before our eyes. Working from models posed in his studio, Velázquez achieved a startlingly lifelike quality in the two figures, which is enhanced by the ambiguity of their communication and a sense of interrupted action. This seemingly casual slice-of-life — presented as if glimpsed through a darkened doorway — is highly calculated for maximum visual impact, and demonstrates the young artist’s mastery of composition, naturalistic representation, and psychological interaction. Such kitchen scenes were popular in Seville as well as in Madrid. Velázquez’s spectacular treatment of humble imagery may in fact have played a role in earning him the recognition of the Spanish court, where he would go on to paint the most prestigious of commissions, including the 1644 portrait of Philip IV in the Frick’s collection.

Jean-Antoine Watteau, Fêtes Vénitiennes, 1718–19, Scottish National Gallery, Edinburgh, © Trustees of the National Galleries of Scotland

Painted in France in the early eighteenth century, Antoine Watteau’s Fêtes Vénitiennes transports us to a fanciful realm. This celebrated work exemplifies the fête galante, a genre of Watteau's own invention that generally depicts elegantly dressed men and women at leisure in rural or park-like settings. The scene is set in a partially walled garden, sheltered by tall trees with leaves gilded by the setting sun or massed into shadowy shapes.

A beautiful young woman in a sumptuous gray silk dress commands the center of the empty foreground, which suggests a stage. She is framed by two male figures: at left, an assertive man in exotic attire locks eyes with her as they commence a stately dance, and, at right, a shepherd with a musette (a type of bagpipe) gazes at her with unfulfilled longing. Behind these three figures, a group of male and female revelers engage in amorous pursuits, their animated poses contrasting with the formality of the dancers.

A garden urn embellished with the mask of a goat, a symbol of sensuality, is positioned directly over the central female figure — the object of the two men's desire. On top of the garden wall, a sculpture of a voluptuous, quasi-lifelike reclining nude makes explicit the more understated eroticism that animates the figures below. The Ladies Waldegrave

Sir Joshua Reynolds, The Ladies Waldegrave, oil on canvas. Scottish National Gallery, Edinburgh, ©Trustees of the National Gallery of Scotland

Technical study shows that in the course of painting, Watteau gave the strutting male dancer the facial features of his friend, the painter Nicolas Vleughels, while at the same time converting the lovelorn shepherd into a self-portrait. Scholars have interpreted these alterations, made late in the execution of the work, as a possible reference to a competition between Watteau and his fellow artist for the affections of the same woman.

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The Frick's Scottish National Gallery Exhibit & Intimations of a Vleughels-Watteau Competition Over a Woman

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