User:Kenzie665/sandbox

Hours of Philip the Bold Revision Ideas

I chose to edit the article Hours of Philip the Bold because it is short (only a Lead section). I plan to add more sub-sections and more information on the topic overall. The article also needs citations. It could use more sources to enhance its content and credibility.

Sources:

Hours of Philip the Bold at the Fitzwilliam Museum

De Winter, Patrick M. "The Grandes Heures of Philip the Bold, Duke of Burgundy: The Copyist Jean L'Avenant and His Patrons at the French Court." Speculum 57, no. 4 (1982): 786-842. Accessed February 13, 2020. doi:10.2307/2848764.

Article Revision Ideas

The Wikipedia article that I chose to edit is on Jan Steen's The Oyster Eater. For this article, I plan on adding more information about the origins behind the painting. I would also like to add more information on the historical context of the painting.

The article I chose is very short in terms of the content provided. The content that is given so far is related to the topic and it is accurate. There is only one source provided, but it is a website of the museum the painting is located at, and it is in a different language. I would like to try and find sources that contain more information about this artwork.

Bibliography:

• Cloutier-Blazzard, Kimberlee A. "The Elephant in the Living Room: Jan Steen's Fantasy Interior as Parodic Portrait of the Schouten Family." Aurora, The Journal of the History of Art 11 (2010): 91.
• Cheney, Liana De Girolami. "The Oyster in Dutch Genre Paintings: Moral or Erotic Symbolism." Artibus Et Historiae 8, no. 15 (1987): 135-158.
• Khar, Madlyn Milner. “Dutch Paintings of the Seventeenth Century.” New York: Harper and Row. 1978.
• Salinger, Margaretta M. "Jan Steen's Merry Company." The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 17, no. 5 (1959): 121-31. doi:10.2307/3257799.

The Oyster Eater Article Evaluations

Jan Steen

At a first glance, this article contains a good overview about Jan Steen. Just by reading this article, I got a good idea of who he was and about his life as an artist. Some areas I would add more information to is the section about his artworks. This section describes the type of work he did overall, and it provides a few examples. However, I would have liked to see some background on some of his more well-known works of art. One thing that I found kind of distracting was that there were a lot of images of Steen's paintings. Overall, the article is neutral, the editor does not seem to lean towards any particular view about the topic. The citations work, and they take me to the articles which the editors retrieved information from. For some of the sources, I am not sure if they are scholarly, such as a source from Britannica. This page was also updated pretty recently (December 25, 2018). This article is of interest to three different WikiProjects which all have a C-class rating. The talk page is kind of short. One editor explains how they have made changes to the article, then even provides information on how to fix any of their edits.

Information from sources

Cheney

• The oyster was commonly used in Dutch genre paintings, or merry company paintings and oyster meals were often a main focus.
• Merry company paintings are thought to have originated from early sixteenth century Flemish mythological paintings.
• Oysters were a reminder of ancient times and symbolized Aphrodite, the goddess of love, fertility, pleasure, and sex throughout antiquity and all the way into Baroque art.
• Typically appeared in mythological paintings where Aphrodite and Dionysus were the main dieties.
• The use of the oyster meal in Dutch genre paintings has been separated into two time periods. The first time period lasted approximately from 1610 to 1635. During this time, oysters were shown being consumed in merry company paintings. The second time period went from 1660 to 1680. Towards the later time period, oyster paintings were painted in more private settings.
• Oyster meal paintings of the second time period were all set indoors and displayed some sort of a domestic interior. Unlike the earlier merry company paintings that portrayed feasts, these later oyster paintings usually portrayed some kind of private, romantic meeting.

Khar

• Is an example of a genre painting from the seventeenth century which depicts a scene from everyday life.
• Genre paintings generally included earthy humor, sometimes with satirical overtones.
• Steen's works expressed the Dutch whim for portraiture, love of the home and family, and for moralistic messages, all typically found in domestic settings
• Shells were used in several Dutch genre paintings. They were objects of scientific interest to the Dutch that were interested in science and history. Oysters also held exotic connotations as many featured in paintings were from different continents, and they were seen as souvenirs of the ancient past.
• In The Oyster Eater, the oyster is used as a symbol. In paintings like this where shells are shown as empty or along side other partially eaten items, it implies the temporariness of earthly pleasures, a commonly repeated theme in Dutch art.
• The oysters in the context of this painting are also said to convey an erotic meaning.
• The Oyster Eater or A Girl Salting Her Oysters is an example of Steen's more intricate and skillful style.
• Considered to come close to the elegant style of Frans van Mieris the Elder. Particularly, the arched top, small size, and the extreme care of every small detail resemble the works of Gerrit Dou. He was the great master of "fine painting" in Leiden and Mieris' teacher.
• In the painting, there is a young woman who makes direct eye contact with the viewer. Her expression is flirtatious and seems to tell the viewer that she is salting the oysters for them. Oysters are also thought to be an aphrodisiac, the most seductive being the ones that are rich and full.
• In The Oyster Eater, Steen used framing to created a complicated yet skillful composition. He used the vertical and horizontal lines of the door frame, bed curtains, and the edge of the table create an imaginary border around the woman. The arched top of the painting reflects the curvature of the young woman's head and shoulder. The placement of objects such as the oyster point in a specific direction, allowing the viewer's eye to focus on the figures in the back room. The placement of the background figures balances out with the young woman in the foreground.

/The Oyster Eater