Description of the picture:
Hearing – Adrian van Ostade. Wood, oil. Twenty x twenty five cm
One of the most talented representatives of Dutch painting, Adrian van Ostade, is distinguished by his great capacity for work, he has a huge number of paintings, portraits, drawings, watercolors, prints. The plots are mainly devoted to rural life, life, customs.
His series of paintings “Five Senses” is best known, by which we mean our basic human feelings for interacting with the world. And each of them the master painter allegorically embodied in a genre scene.
Pictures of a small format, everyone is happy to buy them, from the peasant to the burgher. In these works, the author’s knowledge of the life of ordinary people, as well as a good sense of humor, is especially pronounced.
The canvas “Hearing” was written in 1635. A cheerful company gathered near a roughly knocked-down fence. A colorful violinist in a hat that has come to his eyes while still holding the violin tightly. But his legs are already giving way – that look and he will start to dance.
Nearby sits a cheerful guy who, with inspiration, sings songs very loudly. Wine from a jug in the hands of a village woman only adds to the mood of the audience. The sharp contrast between the black background behind the fence and the light area with the characters creates the bulge and reality of this cheerful society. So you hear the dissonant, disordered choir of a cheerful, drunken trinity drifting along the street.
The work of Adrian van Ostade is the exact opposite of the concepts in the depiction of the “five senses” that were adopted before the 17th century. After all, it was a high style, allegorically (allegorically) glorifying the feelings of gods, historical characters, winners and heroes. And the Dutchman van Ostade showed in his little creations with great sympathy the usual village men and women who have the same feelings.
To some extent, the artist мейд a “revolution” in high art, expressing his attitude to the ideal and exquisite painting of that time."
