Vioolspeler 1655 - 1710

Curator: Jan van Somer created this etching, “Vioolspeler,” sometime between 1655 and 1710. The image shows three figures gathered inside what appears to be a large barrel. What strikes you about it initially? Editor: Well, the palpable sense of revelry! It feels almost claustrophobic, with these figures squeezed into their circular frame, but the boisterous laughter overrides any sense of constraint. You can almost hear the scratchy sound of the fiddle mixing with their jovial shouts. Curator: Absolutely. Somer captures a very specific moment here, steeped in the genre painting tradition of the period. Notice the almost grotesque caricatures of the figures; their exaggerated features seem intended to satirize a specific social group. One almost gets a carnivalesque sensibility here, mocking the moral laxity associated with lower social orders. Editor: I agree. And note the objects around them, like the pitcher, drinking glass, and the interior of the barrel. These commonplace items really root this scene in the world of labour, taverns, and maybe the lower rungs of society during that period. The etching is so reliant on these objects to do its work! Curator: This speaks to the etching's function within a broader social narrative. Beyond being a scene of merriment, what might the scene be critiquing or upholding? Who does it speak for? And how are those perspectives gendered, classed, or racially enforced? It's quite a complex little print, when you pull back and analyze it as part of the socio-political structure. Editor: I find myself thinking of the labour involved in producing such an image. The skills to create those tonal variations using hatching must have taken years to develop, and for what purpose? It's essentially making multiples to represent everyday life in an unsentimental and accessible way. The irony being the access wasn't so widespread for its original consumers! Curator: It highlights, doesn't it, that even what looks like a simple genre scene is thoroughly embedded within cultural currents, anxieties, and aspirations of its time. Editor: Indeed, and focusing on its material reality helps unlock a great deal.