How do we move away from being a civilization that produces art that causes comments like, “my five year old could make this,” back to being one that creates beauty and inspires deep questions? We must reject modernity and embrace tradition. To embrace tradition, we must first learn about it..
Let’s study art history together.
In A Roman Osteria
Artist
Carl Bloch
Year
1866
Medium
Oil on canvas
Dimensions
148.5 cm × 177.5 cm (58.5 in × 69.9 in)
Location
National Gallery of Denmark, Copenhagen
For those who are uncultured, like me, I will provide an answer to your first question. (via wiki)
An osteria (Italian: [osteˈriːa]) in Italy was originally a place serving wine and simple food. Lately, the emphasis has shifted to the food, but menus tend to be short, with the emphasis on local specialities such as pasta and grilled meat or fish, often served at shared tables. Osterie tend to be cheap, and they also focus on after work and evening refreshment. Osterie vary greatly in practice: some only serve drinks and clients are allowed to bring in their own food, others have retained a predominantly male clientele, while still others have reached out to students and young professionals. Some provide music and other entertainment. Similar to osterie are bottiglierie, where customers can take a bottle or flask to be re-filled from a barrel, and enoteche, which generally pride themselves on the range and quality of their wine. In Emilia-Romagna there are located three of the oldest Italian osterie: “Osteria del Sole” and “Osteria del Cappello” in Bologna, and “Osteria al Brindisi” in Ferrara, established between the 14th and 15th centuries
You probably could have guessed the meaning, based on the painting, but now you can explain this question with unabashed confidence if it ever comes up in your life again.
My second question, when I looked at this painting, was some soul searching regarding the thing of which it reminds me. I think I figured that one out, too.
This was a very popular meme format a couple of years ago and it is the same vibe as the painting. I suppose that look is timeless. I once told a room of people after a quiet (and for some emotional) viewing of the film ‘Basquiat’ that I would rather saw off my own arms that watch the film ever again. Everyone looked at me like this. I can report that I still have both arms, thankfully, and that I have never watched that dreadful movie since. The look of scorn and accusation still resides within me, though. Anyway. The painting.
The first thing you probably notice is how incredibly realistic the people in the piece look. IMMEDIATELY after that, you feel self-conscious about the fact everyone is breaking the fourth wall and staring at you. In that way, the viewer of the painting is its focus. And when I say everyone is staring, that includes the little cat (who might actually have the most malevolent glare of the group.)
I should mention that there is some room for debate regarding the interpretation of the stares of the young women. Some view their look as coyly flirtatious. Perhaps it’s just projection, but I see a desire for me to leave. What do you think?
After that, though, the more you look, the more detail you notice. There are bugs at the table. The bread is incredibly realistic-seeming. Then for me, I got around to noticing the wardrobe choices for the young people near the front and I want to bring some of these styles back. How do I convince an Influencer to do that?
I could probably stare at this incredible painting for hours. What’s it all about though? What’s the point? (more via wiki)
In a Roman Osteria is an oil-on-canvas painting by the Danish painter Carl Bloch. It was painted in 1866. One of Bloch’s better-known genre scenes, the painting was commissioned by the merchant Moritz G. Melchior, Bloch’s friend and major supporter who is included in the background of the painting.
Carl Bloch was a personal friend of Moritz G. Melchior. He often visited the Melchior family for dinner on Thursdays in their home on the second floor at Højbro Plads 21. Other friends of the family, who would often also attend the Thursday Dinners, included the writer Hans Christian Andersen and the painter Frederik Christian Lund, poet and museum administrator Carl Andersen and representatives of the press such as Dagbladet editor C. St. A. Bille, journalists Robert Watt and P. “Cabiro” Hansen and publisher and editor of Fædrelandet (‘The Fatherland’) Carl Ploug.
The painting seen on a photograph from Melchior’s home in the Ploug House
The Polish-Danish painter Elisabeth Jerichau Baumann also made a version of the scene and there are at least three variations of that painting. The unframed oil on canvas measures 148.5 by 177.5 centimetres (58.5 by 69.9 in).
In 1884, Melchior bequeathed the painting to the Danish National Gallery. It was handed over to the museum following the death of Melchior’s daughter Louise in 1935.
Description
The setting is in the interior of a Roman osteria. In the forefront, there is a table with three customers: a young man is facing two young women. The one on the left of the man wears a headscarf in the typical garb of married Roman women at the time. The man is seen turning toward the onlooker with an angry expression, whereas the woman at his right is looking with a smiling one, and the (presumably slightly older) other woman looks amused in the same direction. A cat sits to the left of the young woman, silently judging the onlooker.
The painter depicted himself in the background, sitting at a table talking with two friends; his back is turned to the viewer.
In popular culture
In April 2018, BBC Radio 1 DJ Greg James led a real-life recreation of the painting after his listeners discovered that he looked like the man in the painting. It was called the ‘Radio 1 Paint-A-Long’ and also included two listeners, Miriam and Harriet, who took the places of the women featured.
There’s a great review of this painting that I recommend. She sees some more provocative hidden messages in the work than I did on my own inspection.
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