A friend brought my attention to "A Messy Table, a Map of the World" by Jason Farago, a Close Read article in The New York Times dated May 8, 2022. It brings together what I enjoy most about art history courses: the integration of art, in this case paintings, with interesting historical sidenotes. It is a brilliant visual presentation focusing on Dutch globalization, and is well worth a read.
Farago focuses on an oil painting by Dutch artist Willem Claesz Heda, created in 1635, "Still Life with a Gilt Cup." He explores other 17th century Dutch works featuring flowers and fruits, green glass goblets and luminous lemons. He delves into fascinating backgrounds, such as the Dutch trade network that brought such luxuries as peppercorns to the European table; Christian subjects; and painterly notations about light including reflections in glass, the sheen of metal, shadows in folds of napkins.
Some of the rare items featured in the various still life paintings "flowed along epic sea routes, part of a new world system that turned still life into a kind of mapmaking." Farago muses that the Dutch gained these exotic items through extensive trade, "at whatever cost to people and ecosystems you might never see yourself." In these days of awareness of colonization, his words leave much to ponder.
And what I notice about the images used in this article, of course, are the baskets. They are not the stars of any of the paintings, as usual, but they are present. The photos below are cropped details of the paintings, please visit the article in The New York Times to see the full images.
Left:
This well-stocked kitchen includes a wicker basket with a bail handle holding vegetables and a duck. The shallow oval wicker tray with handles on the ends cradles fruits, vegetables, and a rabbit. The tray at the front left holding grapes might be a coiled basket; perhaps this is pottery. If I am able to someday go to the Rijsmuseum and can see the painting in person, then I will investigate this.
Joachim Bueckelaer,
The Well-Stocked Kitchen With Jesus in the House of Martha and Mary in the Background. 1566. Credit: Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam.
Right:
The shallow fish basket held by the man, and large gathering baskets on each end, appear to be wicker plaited. There are two other baskets on the ground in from of the men's knees. One has vertical staves, which could be a Native American splint basket. The other could be a bark container with a flat lid, similar to a mocock, a birchbark basket often used for storing maple sugar among Native American tribes of the northeast.
Claes Janszoon, Visscher View of Amsterdam. 1611. Credit: Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam.
Birchbark containers similar to that seen in Janszoon's sketch.
As Farago's article recounts, the Dutch brought back items from far corners of the globe to the Netherlands. The Dutch were in the Americas in the early 1600s, prior to Janszoon's 1611 illustration. People would have had access to birchbark containers frequently made by a number of Native American peoples of the northeast.
Edward S. Curtis, Birchbark Baskets - Cree. 1926. Photograph in The North American Indian.
Left:
The focus of this painting of Dutch daily life is on the woman's action of pouring milk. It's also a classic still life, with bread, a tankard, and crockery. A wicker bread basket is in the foreground.
A more interesting basket hangs on the wall in the background. It is rectangular in shape with outflaring walls and side handles.
Johannes Vermeer,
The Milkmaid. Circa 1660. Credit: Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam.
Two warps over a weft create the pattern on this wicker basket full of seashells. Interestingly, the artist included the broken stitches along the top edge, typical of a well-used basket.
The basket looks like it could be made of willow, that hearty plant used for basketry throughout Europe and North America. A quick search of "Dutch basket materials" brought up a wonderful website from the
Dutch Centre for Intangible Cultural Heritage which states
"Basketry, is done with wicker, rushes, straw, various grass varieties, blackberry twigs and other flexible twigs from the Netherlands. Others use rattan, material that initially came to the Netherlands from The Dutch East Indies as ballast."
Perhaps willow might be included in the category "flexible twigs," as willow is native to the Netherlands, including white willow Salix alba.
Cornelis de Man, The Curiosity Seller. Circa 1672-77. Credit: Sothebys.
Above:
A lively scene in Jakarta features, from left to right, a man reaching into a basket tray on the ground; perhaps a basketry parasol; two mats, probably basketry; and a pair of baskets on a yoke at the far right.
Andries Beeckman, The Castle of Batavia. [Jakarta] Circa 1661. Credit: Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam.
Five large baskets, probably filled with food, sit on the ground in this South American scene. In the background, a woman is seen carrying a similar basket on her head.
I hope you read Farago's thoughtful article. I find his closing sentiment to be menaingful, so I will use it for my closing as well:
"Art may show you the connections for just a moment. They will always be hazy. But some motions can only be sensed when you're standing still."
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