painting, oil-paint, canvas
baroque
dutch-golden-age
painting
oil-paint
oil painting
canvas
vanitas
naive art
realism
Dimensions: 34.5 cm (height) x 26 cm (width) (Netto), 47 cm (height) x 39 cm (width) x 5.1 cm (depth) (Brutto)
Jacob Marrel created “A Glass Vase with Flowers” using oil paint, a medium prized for its ability to capture minute details and rich colors. The painting’s impact relies on the properties of oil paint, which allowed Marrel to build up layers of color and texture. The smooth, reflective surfaces of the glass vase contrast with the delicate, almost velvety textures of the flower petals. This wasn’t just about skillful illusion, though. In 17th-century Europe, rare and exotic flowers like these tulips were luxury items, coveted by the wealthy. Marrel’s painting reflects this culture of consumption, where even a humble vase of flowers could signify status. By focusing on materials, making, and context, we can appreciate how this painting goes beyond a simple representation of beauty, touching on themes of labor, politics, and economics.
Comments
The flowers parade themselves in their splendour, peeping out at us between brightly coloured petals as if to say “look at me, smell me”. Tulips, hyacinths, anemones, spring snowflakes, cowslips and fritillaries; these are all familiar spring flowers to us. Today they are commonplace, but in Jacob Marrel’s day such bulbs were rare and precious. Hyacinth and tulip bulbs were investment objects in The Netherlands, where Marrel spent much of his career. Lucrative tulip mania Like many other artists in The Netherlands he operated a sideline business in addition to painting. Marrel traded in tulip bulbs, recording all purchases and sales. When the tulip mania reached its greatest heights in 1636–37, Marrel could sell his bulbs at great profits.
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