PREFACE A door slightly opened in a picture, can make appear the space behind mysterious. This is the case of one of the richest paintings by Jan Brueghel the Elder, The Archdukes Albert and Isabella Visiting a Collector's Cabinet, and many other northern paintings from the seventeenth century. The absence of a landscape out of the window and the light that illuminates the room without making any shades, construct an abstract space, which is not so graceful and pleasant, but rather enigmatic. The infinite variety of the objects present in the room reinforces this sensation. Where should we start to analyse the painting? Any art historian, as the first operation, would probably commence by distinguishing it by an Italian painting. This is not my case, and apparently neither yours. My first impression, facing with the picture, was a sort of estrangement or suspension, and it is not caused by the alteration of the perspective, or at least not only. Svetlana Alpers defines this type of painting the art of description. No central theme of a particular narration but rather a fabulous ĂŠkphrasis is painted, where different scenes take place and capture our attention. At the same time, the picture evokes in my mind the image of domestic, despite the scene represented is not a domestic space. Why does it happen? Which are the objects that create this particular atmosphere? How did they shape our notion of domesticity? A pot of flowers in the foreground does have a symbolic value, and it is also a beautiful everyday object. Avoiding any questions about the relation between object and symbol, I will try to show how certain objects represented in painting have an explicit reference to architecture. Does not architecture deal both with the everyday object and its religious value?
Issuu converts static files into: digital portfolios, online yearbooks, online catalogs, digital photo albums and more. Sign up and create your flipbook.