What if there is no right answer? finding purpose and meaning in Pieter Aertsen’s inverted compositions

Abstract

This paper concentrates on Pieter Aertsen’s most well-known “inverted” compositions, how they may have functioned, and how this functionality could have affected viewership and intended meaning. Traditionally, the scholarship on Aertsen’s images has been concentrated on interpretation. However, conclusions often vary widely and hold fundamental contradictions and disagreements. Aertsen’s works fell out of public interest not long after his death. When interest reemerged, it was centuries too late to ask critical questions about patronage, interpretation, and contemporary reception. Recent scholarship on some of Aertsen’s more well-known contemporaries has opened doors for new ways of considering Aertsen and his most enigmatic paintings. The Second half of the sixteenth century was a complicated time in the Netherlands, a time of incredible educational progress, scientific advancement, and economic success, but also political unrest, religious strife, and public oppression. Having a divisive opinion could be incredibly dangerous. In order to please patrons and keep up with the times, Aertsen painted in a blended technique, mixing Italianate style with Netherlandish traditions. If he was attempting to please multiple groups of people with his art style, why not through subject matter and interpretation as well? In this paper, I compare and cross-analysis Aertsen with some of his more well-known contemporaries. I look at coeval home inventories, the upper classes’ obsession with luxury items, and the social circumstances of the time. Through these analyses, I explore the possibility that Aertsen’s paintings were meant to please multiple groups of people. In this way, they served as status symbols and conversation pieces, inspiring and instigating private group discussions, both edifying and trivial.