STILL LIFE AFTER DEATH

Searching for Identity in the Works of Clara Peeters

DECEMBER 9, 2020 TY MCGREGOR Indiana University of Pennsylvania Introduction

Among Dutch painters of the 17th Century, there is a wealth of information on painters like , Vermeer, and Hals. However, there is one figure on which this paper will focus whose identity remains a mystery. Despite her status as a founding mother of the still-life genre, very little is known about Clara Peeters’ personal life. She is confirmed to be Flemish, specifically hailing from Antwerp and active as a painter in the early 17th century. Scholarship on Clara Peeters herself is thin, but through the wealth of information on Dutch history, art, anthropology and the treatment of women and women artists in Europe, one may find a clearer picture of Clara Peeters, even if that picture is interpretive.

Clara Peeters, as a Flemish woman living in the early 17th century likely benefitted from the slowly expanding gender roles in that society. It is likely that Peeters learned to paint from a father or male friend; in Europe up to this point, women’s entrance into art was through men; often fathers and husbands tutored wives and daughters (Barker, 2016). In the Netherlands, women were expanding their own gender roles in other ways, such as religious writing. Women like Cornelia and Susanna

Teellinck in the 16th Century were able to voice their own political opinions in writing because of strict adherence to Calvinist doctrine. (Pipkin, 2019) No doubt, expanding gender roles in the previous century had an impact on Peeters’ ability to succeed as a

Flemish woman painter.

Peeters’ art, like other art of the Dutch , showcases the prosperity and growth of the Dutch middle class. Food scarcity was not an issue in the Netherlands at this time, as evidenced by Peeters, whose technical skill in depicting bountiful feasts is awe-inspiring even to a modern viewer. The way she captures light reflecting and scattering in the waxy skin of fruit to the warped reflections in silver platters and drinkware, and even her realistic depictions of game animals all show unparalleled attention to detail. The viewer feels tempted to reach out and tear a hunk of bread from a roll. Such incredibly faithful depictions can only come from close and lengthy observation.

In the field of art, and especially in the genre of still-life, the placement of objects within the scene speaks to value and intent on the part of the artist or patron. While the initial response of many when evaluating still-life and other Dutch painting of this era is to dismiss it as simply representative of a bourgeois culture which values possessions above all, there’s often an underlying symbolic meaning to the objects depicted in still- life for those who care to investigate. The genre is much more like other art forms, then, as still-life can be simultaneously “high” and “low” art; it can be appreciated both in terms of technical excellence and symbolic or allegorical meaning just as history painting might be.

Vanitas

Despite her prowess at naturalistic depictions of food and fur, Peeters suffered at drawing human figures. Her only known painting of a person is a Vanitas that is believed to be a self-portrait. The painting shows the same prowess in still-life imagery yet is contrasted with a rather poor depiction of human anatomy. Even the delicate, intricate lacework and the definition in the strands of hair as they catch the light are rendered in incredible detail. However, the body is oddly posed, with a disproportionately large head and arms which do not appear to match one another in length. That said, the transfixed gaze of the sitter as she appears to peer out of a window just beyond the frame does hint at a greater story present in the piece; despite this juxtaposition of incredible attention to detail with an unfortunately lacking understanding of anatomy, the meaning behind the painting is sound.

After moving on from the figure, the eye is drawn to the gold, especially the overturned tazza which lies ajar on the table. All about the tazza are strewn gold coins, rings, and other jewelry, as well as a pair of dice which have turned up seven. Seven is likely a reference to the seven deadly sins, greed being particularly applicable given the accoutrements. To the left, we have a vase of flowers, some of which are wilting, symbolizing the inevitability of death and decay. Flowers shown include anemone or wind flower, hepatica, and snake’s head fritillary, the latter of which is a member of the lily family. Lilies are often symbolic of purity associated with God the Son, while anemone are sometimes seen alongside the Virgin Mary; given that this is a secular painting, both most likely symbolize purity. Hepaticas, on the other hand, have no inherent meaning. (Haig, 1913)

Perhaps the most important aspect of the vanitas is the bubble floating behind the head of the figure. Peeters’ Vanitas is part of a long tradition in art history where human mortality is symbolized using a soap bubble. Homo bulla, meaning “man is a bubble,” is a tradition which compares our own fleeting existence with that of the humble soap bubble. Life is fragile and can end at any time, popped like a bubble on the wind. A memento mori, it is a morbid nudge, encouraging viewers to appreciate what they have while they have it. Returning to the figure in the painting for a moment, I would like to address my thoughts on this painting as a self-portrait of Clara Peeters. When reviewing the painting for this section, my eye was led to the gold cup which remains upright in the painting.

Just above the stem, there is a reflection which is consistent with those found in other paintings identified as Clara Peeters’. Similar self-reflected images can be found in Still

Life with Cheeses, Almonds and Pretzels, ca. 1615, Still Life with Venetian Glass,

Roemer and a Candlestick, ca. 1611, and especially Still Life with Flowers and Gold

Cups of Honor, ca. 1612, which depicts a cup in the same style as Vanitas. What appears to be a brunette woman, or possibly one wearing a bonnet of some kind—not a blonde woman, like the subject in Vanitas—can be seen in all three paintings.

This self-reflection is part of a tradition in Dutch and Flemish art dating back to

Jan van Eyck, who famously used a similar technique in The Arnolfini Portrait, 1434 to expand the space shown within the painting. Beyond the tradition, there are a few other reasons why artists would include this self-reflection in her art, according to Young’s

“Making Reflections/Reflecting Making: Clara Peeters and the Representation of Early

Modern Authorship.” The first and least interesting answer is for marketing purposes: if the artist is in the painting, it is essentially an advertisement for that artist. The more interesting answer is that the act of reflection is a statement on ownership and the inherent collaborative nature of art. That is to say, the act of reflection is itself a kind of agency, forcing the viewer into the perspective of the artist as she creates, involving audiences and hinting at the work involved in creating the piece.

However, the question still remains: If the reflection in the painting is Peeters herself, then who is the sitter in this Vanitas? My theory is that there was no sitter, and that this was Peeters’ attempt to fashion a subject from nothing. Looking at her self- reflected paintings, the figures atop the gold cups of honor, and the tablecloth scenes in her Lenten banquets, she doesn’t seem to have issues painting human subjects or figures when they are done from a physical model or study. Yet this Vanitas suffers from such strange proportions that it seems quite literally disjointed, a Frankenstein of sorts.

It seems strange that for all her attention to detail in her depictions of food and animals that she would fail so terribly at depicting the human form. In Still Life with Nuts,

Candy, and Flowers, ca. 1611, perhaps her most detailed self-reflection can be seen in the reflection of a silver pitcher. In this reflection, Peeters is reflected in each curve of the pitcher in rather incredible detail; even the window behind her has physically accurate reflections, warped and twisted by the curvature of the vessel.

Religion and Still Life

Still Life with Crab, Shrimps and Lobster, ca. 1635-1640 is simple to interpret symbolically. Peeters depicts a Lenten banquet of shellfish, eggs, wheels of cheese, biscuits, and bread. In the 1600s, shellfish was something of a delicacy. Especially in affluent Dutch homes, the lobster was viewed favorably and was the subject of many a still life painter (Townsend, 2011 pp. 26-31). Despite its status as a luxury, shellfish is still permissible to eat during Lenten fasts. The bread is central to the painting, covered by a cloth, as it is during Holy Communion. Below the bread, a crease in the tablecloth leads us down to a religious scene depicted in pale blue-grey.

The scene is the biblical story of the Binding of Isaac. In this story, God tells

Abraham to sacrifice his son on Mt. Moriah. Immediately preceding the act, however,

God stops Abraham with a messenger and provides a ram to sacrifice in Isaac’s stead. The whole engagement is a test of Abraham’s faith and devotion to God. However, the important part of this story is not the test of Abraham but Isaac. Christian Theologians view Isaac’s near-sacrifice as a type or kind of prediction of Christ’s crucifixion. Parallels include Isaac carrying the wood for his own burnt offering (Genesis 22:6) much like

Christ carrying his own cross (John 19:17), Abraham’s cryptic response to Isaac’s questioning about the lamb for the offering: “God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering, my son,” (Genesis 22:7-8) which parallels Christ’s position as the Lamb of God, as well as the stay of sacrifice, which can be read as a metaphor for Christ’s resurrection.

Another similar painting, likely created as a companion piece, is Peeters’ Still Life with Shellfish and Eggs, ca 1590-1630. In this piece, many of the same ingredients are present, but arranged slightly differently. The crab, shrimp, lobster, tazza of salt, and small bowl of sauce are in the same position, but the glasses and cheeses are different.

Most notably, however, the bread and eggs have their positions swapped and the bread is left uncovered. The scene on the tablecloth also changes, this time a figure I believe to be John the Baptist in the wilderness, characterized by his cross-shaped staff or scepter, scroll, and association with the wilderness. While John the Baptist is often pictured wearing a loincloth or hair shirt, there are Dutch artists who depict him in more robe-like attire, such as works by in the 17th Century and Hieronymus

Bosch and Geertgen tot Sint Jans in the 15th. This shift in subject matter sends a different message, one of asceticism.

The knife in this image is placed on the edge of the table to invite viewers partake in the banquet, however its position is different. In Crabs, Shrimps, and Lobster, the knife points our attention to the bread as the body of Christ and hints at three- dimensions by resting under the cloth covering the bread. In Shellfish and Eggs, however, the knife is less important, losing the jewels which adorn the handle in the other piece, and resting instead near the bowl which houses the crab. The white eggs are symbolic of renewal or rebirth, quite common in the Easter season. Beginning as far back as the first century A.D., the phoenix was a symbol of Christianity, mentioned by

St. Clement in his Epistle to the Corinthians and inscribed on early Christian funeral stones. This association is a possible origin of eggs as a symbol of resurrection, with examples of a Phoenix rising from an egg from Lithuania (Newall, 1967).

A major characteristic of John the Baptist in scripture and art is his ascetic lifestyle. He spends much of his time in the wilderness and wears a cilice made from camel’s hair. (Matthew 3:4) Cilices were and indeed still are worn as a form of repentance or so-called mortification of the flesh. In the late 16th and early 17th centuries, there were Roman Catholic Orders who sought to the Baptist’s asceticism in that way. The Capuchins were ordered to use poor quality sackcloth for their robes

(even coining the name “sac du penitent” for the attire), which were cinched with plain cords of rough rope. The cords represented self-flagellation, though this form of mortification was controversial and only to be performed in private. A penitent procession by Henry III was criticized for including flagellation, even by those who normally supported such things. (Gardner, 2019)

Another aspect of John the Baptist in art is his cross-shaped scepter which identifies him as a Bishop, a clergyperson with some authority in the Church. In Catholic and Orthodox churches, Bishops claim apostolic succession as part of a historical lineage dating back to Christ’s apostles. A bishop, then, has been given the responsibility to teach, govern, and sanctify the Body of Christ. This falls in line with his status as forerunner to Christ, preparing people for Christ’s teachings to “make ready a people prepared for the Lord” (Luke 1:17). Additionally, there are those theologians who consider John the Baptist as the prophesied second coming of the Old Testament’s

Elijah (Joynes, 2005). In certain Old Testament and New Testament passages, it is foretold that God will send Elijah, a prophet to prepare people for an untold reckoning and implied by Christ in his time that Elijah has already come unrecognized (Malachi

4:5-6) (Matthew 17:11-13). However, John the Baptist denies this in the Gospel of John

(1:19-21).

The eggs at first glance read as a reference to Christ and the Easter Season; they reference Christ’s resurrection, and their pure white shells are symbolic of His divine nature and the way he cleanses believers of sin. Eggs are often associated with

Lent, the Christian period of fasting prior to Easter. In order to keep Christ’s sacrifice in mind during the Easter celebration of his death and resurrection, Christians fast for several weeks. During this time, the consumption of meat is disallowed. Common substitutes are cheese, fish, and eggs. These same dietary restrictions are found among the Order of Carthusians, an ascetic order within the Roman Catholic Church.

(Grumett and Muers, 2010) The origins of Lent are up to some debate, yet it is consistently treated as a time for penitence.

Clara Peeters’ combination of the still-life with religious art shows her ability to combine and make meaning through abstract concepts, particularly the theological. It is unsurprising that a Dutch woman of this time used religion to greater expand her roles and options for herself. Susanna and Cornelia Teellinck did the same thing in the mid-

1500s Spanish Netherlands as writers. Their faith, one of the few avenues open to them as women, was used to make a name for themselves as writers, promoting a unified orthodox doctrine in the Netherlands. (Moran and Pipkin, 2019)

Use of Models/Studies

In the aforementioned Crabs, Shrimps, and Lobster and Shellfish and Eggs, as well as other art, it appears that Peeters painted from previous studies with some frequency. Often, the same objects in the same or similar positions appear in her artworks. In Shellfish and Crabs, the titular objects, save for the eggs, appear in both paintings; even the bowl of shrimp has the same tiny crab over-turned in an identical position. Additionally, the same tazza filled with salt is pictured in both. Initially, I thought these paintings might have been done side-by-side, but there are subtle differences in the color of the shellfish that lead me to believe they were not. The hue of the lobster does not match in the two paintings, for instance: In Shellfish, the lobster is a pleasant pinkish red, while in Crabs, it is more orange and brown.

Another example of this phenomenon can be found in the paintings Still Life with

Mallard, Hare, Squirrel and Basket of Grapes, ca. 1620 and Still Life with Silver Gilt

Tazza, date unknown. In both paintings, we see a puckish squirrel snacking on a nut as he stands near some dead game animals, fruit, and prawn. The squirrel is identical, with the same beady eyes, paws in the same position with the same claws, and even the same strange ears which seem almost in movement.

This tendency is not out of place for Clara Peeters’ time, as , a fellow Flemish artist painted studies of heads/busts which he then used in other works. For instance, Study of Two Heads, ca. 1609 was used later as a saint in an altarpiece later that year, a high priest, in 1612, and a river god in 1615. Artists would often use these studies or models to cut down on the time it took to create artworks, as one could simply match together modular parts to create a natural whole, a technique which works even in sculpture as shown by the Terra Cotta Army of Qin Shi Huang in 210 BCE.

Conclusion

Clara Peeters’ still life painting, while considered low in the hierarchy of genres, can still offer an impression of the life the woman led and indeed be interpreted intelligently. While she may have been limited in her pursuits because of Baroque gender roles, she still seems to have been quite educated. While not a major part of her career as far as we know, some of her paintings seem to have religious imagery and theological implications beyond what I would call a layperson’s understanding. As a woman in the early low countries, she found at least temporarily, a social outlet through theology like the Teellinck sisters in the 16th century.

Peeters’ education does not seem to stop with the theological however, as she also seems to be fairly well-versed in the art historical. She follows the tradition of self- reflection established in previous centuries by the likes of Jan van Eyck, adapted for her style of still life painting. In this way, hints of her appearance and identity peer out from her paintings, reflected in cups, flagons, and candlesticks, closely framed within them.

The reflections tend to show her face and not much else appearing almost imprisoned within them. As awful as the expression is, she reads as trapped within a gilded cage.

As much as her paintings represent her unique privilege as a member of the middle class, these banquet scenes void of human presence, offer up a wistful sadness as

Peeters is unable to free herself from her gendered station.

By way of subtextual examination of her work, this paper has sought to create an interpretive image of Clara Peeters’ life and values. It is clear now that Clara Peeters comes from an educated background given her experience with the theological and art historical. Additionally, with her use of studies and the intricate detail in her paintings, it can be inferred that Peeters received formal training for her craft. Likely trained by a father or other male cohort, Peeters then built a career out of her decadent feast paintings for a newly formed middle-class patronage. While her only known foray into portraiture is held in poor regard, the rest of her work is undeniably well-executed. Her role in the formation of the genre of still life is commendable, and will no doubt continue to influence future generations to come whether about her identity can be uncovered or not. My hope is that through this somewhat speculative glimpse into Peeters’ life, more scholarly attention will be paid to this founding mother of a genre.

Clara Peeters, Still Life with Crabs, Shrimps and Lobster, ca. 1635-1640

Clara Peeters, Still Life with Shellfish and Eggs, ca. 1590-1630

Matthias Stom, John the Baptist, ca. 1630

Hieronymus Bosch, St. John the Baptist in the Wilderness, ca. 1489

Geertgen tot Sint Jans, St. John the Baptist in the Wilderness, ca. 1498

Clara Peeters, Vanitas, ca. 1610

Clara Peeters, Still Life with Cheeses, Almonds and Pretzels, 1615 (and detail)

Clara Peeters, Still Life with Venetian Glass, Roemer, and a Candlestick, ca. 1611

Clara Peeters, Still Life with Flowers and Gold Cups of Honor, ca. 1612

Clara Peeters, Still Life with Nuts, Candy, and Flowers, ca. 1611

Clara Peeters, Still Life with Nuts, Candy, and Flowers (Detail), ca. 1611 Works Cited

Barker, Sheila. Women Artists in Early Modern Italy: Careers, Fame, and Collectors. Harvey Miller Publishers, 2016.

Barnes, Donna R., and Peter G. Rose. Matters of Taste: Food and Drink in Seventeenth-Century Dutch Art and Life ; Syracuse Univ. Press, 2002.

Brusati, Celeste. “Stilled Lives: Self-Portraiture and Self-Reflection in Seventeenth- Century Netherlandish Still-Life Painting.” Simiolus: Netherlands Quarterly for the History of Art, vol. 20, no. 2/3, 1990, p. 168., doi:10.2307/3780741.

Carr-Gomm, Sarah. Dictionary of Symbols in Western Art. Facts on File, 1995.

Cozzi, Annette. “Composed Consumption.” Food, Culture & Society, vol. 16, no. 4, 2013, pp. 569–588., doi:10.2752/175174413x13758634982128.

Decoteau, Pamela Hibbs., and Clara Peeters. Clara Peeters: 1594-Ca. 1640: and the Development of Still-Life Painting in Northern Europe. Luca Verlag, 1992.

“From Fertilizer to the Dinner Table.” Lobster: a Global History, by Elisabeth Townsend, Reaktion Books, 2011, pp. 24–35.

Gardner, Rose Esther. “The Scepter and the Cilice: the Politics of Repentance in Sixteenth-Century France (1572-1610).” Columbia University, ProQuest Dissertations Publishing, 2019.

Haig, Elizabeth. The Floral Symbolism of the Great Masters. Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner & Co., Ltd., 1913.

Hyde, Melissa, and Jennifer Milam. Women, Art and the Politics of Identity in Eighteenth-Century Europe. Ashgate, 2004.

Joynes, Christine E. “The Returned Elijah? John the Baptist's Angelic Identity in the Gospel of Mark.” Scottish Journal of Theology, vol. 58, no. 4, 2005, pp. 455–467., doi:10.1017/s003693060500150x.

Moran, Sarah Joan, and Amanda Pipkin. Women and Gender in the Early Modern Low Countries, 1500-1750. Brill, 2019.

Moran, Sarah Joan. “Clara Peteers: Aan Tafel! & El Arte De Clara Peeters/The Art of Clara Peeters.” Early Modern Women, vol. 11, no. 2, 2017, pp. 166–172., doi:10.1353/emw.2017.0016.

Newall, Venetia. “Easter Eggs.” The Journal of American Folklore, vol. 80, no. 315, 1967, p. 3., doi:10.2307/538415. Payne, Melissa. “Paintings as Information: the Anthropology of Images: a Consideration of Late Sixteenth and Seventeenth Century Netherlandish Painting in Relation to Foodways and Historical Archeology.” The College of William and Mary, ProQuest Dissertations Publishing, 1985.

Piepmeier, Mary. “The Appeal Of Lemons: Appearance And Meaning In Mid Seventeenth-Century Dutch Paintings.” University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 2018.

Potter, Polyxeni. “One Rotten Apple Infects All in the Basket.” Emerging Infectious Diseases, vol. 19, no. 1, 2013, doi:10.3201/eid1901.ac1901.

Richardson, Todd Marlin. “Pieter Bruegel the Elder: Art Discourse in the Sixteenth- Century Netherlands.” Leiden University , Pallas, Faculty of Arts, 2007.

Taira, Eriko. “Family Life in Dutch Art of the Seventeenth Century.” University of Glasgow, ProQuest Dissertations Publishing, 2000.

Theology on the Menu: Asceticism, Meat and Christian Diet, by David Grumett and Rachel Muers, Routledge, 2010, pp. 43–45.

Woodall, Joanna. “Laying the Table: The Procedures of Still Life.” Art History, vol. 35, no. 5, 2012, pp. 976–1003., doi:10.1111/j.1467-8365.2012.00933.x.

Young, Amanda Ruth. “Making Reflections/Reflecting Making: Clara Peeters and the Representation of Early Modern Authorship.” UC Santa Barbara, ProQuest Dissertations Publishing, 2013.