A Kaleidoscope of Genres: Seventeenth-Century European Drawings

Mini-Exhibitions in St Andrews School of Art History’s Reception are a tradition of the School, and ‘A Kaleidoscope of Genres’ will be the first one in over two years. Mini-exhibitions curated by Art History’s own students can (re-)enliven the Reception area as a communal space for St Andrews Art Historians and further strengthen Art History’s remarkable sense of community.

This exhibition will focus on seventeenth-century Europe where there were a multitude of distinct types of genre scenes. There were energetic hunting pictures, bacchic tavern scenes, celebratory ‘merry company’ paintings, and many more. Interestingly, battle paintings which were once almighty and grandiose in public settings during the Renaissance were, in many cases, tamed into just another type of energetic genre scenes during the seventeenth century.

I. Leonaert Bramer, Drunk Peasants Dancing, 1630s-40s. 24 x 21 cm. Black Ink on Buff Paper

Leonaert Bramer (1596-1674), famous for his genre scenes featuring peasants, was a talented Dutch draughtsman and painter active in the seventeenth century. He was influenced by Adam Elsheimer and cofounded the Bentvueghels, a group of naturalist Northern artists in Rome. Nowadays, Bramer is much acclaimed, and his works are extensively collected by the Rijksmuseum, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Musei Capitolini, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, National Gallery of Art in Washington D.C., and Los Angeles County Museum of Art.

The lively scene of peasants drinking and dancing is annotated with a wellknown Dutch proverb, krepel willen altijt voor dansen, meaning much the same as the English proverb, ‘fools rush in where angels fear to tread’. The drawing is a fine illustration of the importance of such proverbs in seventeenth-century Dutch art, where quotidian genre scenes were so often loaded with symbolism and moral messages.

II. Anonymous (German School), Battle Scene, seventeenth century. 19.5 x 8.4 cm. Grey Ink and Wash over Black Chalk on Paper

The drawing is presumably a representation of a battle involving the Roman Empire, as there are clearly Roman armours and helmets in the foreground, edifices with Classical appearance in the background, and the letters ‘SPQR’ (‘Senatus Populusque Romanus’) on the standard to the left of the picture. The picture is a quintessential seventeenth-century Continental battle scene. As opposed to the monumental Renaissance battle frescoes, this quick yet still elaborate drawing, like other finished seventeenth-century battle paintings, is small and readily ‘tamed’. Instead of commemorating historical battles like the generally aggrandising Renaissance battle paintings, seventeenth-century battle scenes typically focus more on the decorative aspects, viz. dynamism and drama, of the clash of armed forces. Historically, seventeenth-century battle scenes are categorised as a subgroup of genre scene instead of history painting.

— brought to you by Haomin Li, President of the School of Art History 2021/22