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Joseph
Biays Ord's, All Things Perish -- owned by the Turak
Gallery
-- is in the tradition of vanitas still life painting. The vanitas
theme
found its way into painting around 1600 in Holland, but the ultimate
roots
of the genre are to be found in ancient Greek philosophy. Taking as its
inspiration Ecclesiastes 1:2: “Vanity of vanities, all is vanity,”
vanitas
paintings serve as reminders that the power, the pleasures, even the
beauty
of this earthly life are transient compared to that which meets us
after
death. The paintings were moralizing in intent and served as reminders,
even admonishments, to not attach meaning or importance, to the things
of this world. Traditionally in vanitas paintings attributes that
symbolize
material wealth, knowledge, nature, pleasure in other words, temporal
things
of this earth, are juxtaposed with objects that embody the hope of
Christ’s
resurrection and everlasting life. |
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The
Turak painting may be dissected to produce a virtual laundry list of
elements
traditionally associated with vanitas painting. The woodland setting
ultimately
traced back to the 17th century Dutch still life painter Otto Marseus
van
Schriek, who painted a variety of flora, seemingly in their natural
setting,
along with lizards, snakes, and frogs. Actually van Schriek
artificially
arranged the plant life he portrayed, for things apparently grow
together
that actually have different natural habitats, but all is chosen for
its
symbolic content. The tradition of the woodland still life was carried
on by the Dutch artists Rachel Ruysch (1664-1750). Her father, Dr.
Frederick
Ruysch was a renowned anatomist and director of Amsterdam’s botanical
garden,
who also maintained a natural history museum, where he exhibited
natural
curiosities, which his daughter helped him to prepare. One sees a
parallel
in Ruysch’s circumstances to Joseph Ord and is forced to consider
whether
living with his father the naturalist did not give him easy access to,
and inspiration to paint the snake, birds, butterfly, thistle, and
other
flora and fauna apparent in the Turak painting. |
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The
butterfly is a common symbol of the human soul, particularly the
redeemed
soul granted salvation, for just as the butterfly is born anew from
caterpillar,
so the human soul is redeemed when it dies to sin. |
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The
goldfinch has traditional Christlogical connotations. |
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The
thistle, which appears at lower left in the Turak painting, is
traditionally
symbolic of human sorrow. Its origin in this symbolic role may be found
in Genesis 3:17-18: “Cursed is the ground for thy sake . . . thorns
also
and thistles shall it bring forth thee.” It is a plant painted
frequently
by van Schriek. |
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The
leaves and vines at right that form a bed for the vegetables and from
which
the mushrooms grow it will be noticed that some are green and some are
brown, dead. These as well as the flowers that are portrayed in the
stages
of budding, blooming and decay, suggests the transience of life.
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The
hour glass is an explicit reminder of the passage of time.
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The
transience of human life in particular, received its most forceful
expression
in the death’s head tucked beneath (or deliberately disguised by) the
rock
formation at the right in the Turak painting. [the skull was not
apparent
to me before the painting was cleaned. I have used some imagination to
see it in the pre-restoration transparency, upon which I have based my
observations. I am 99% certain it is there.] |
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The
artist’s palette in the foreground represents the art of painting. The
statue in the background represents the art of sculpture, both arts
symbolic
in the vanitas genre of earthly pleasures. |
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The
art of music -- represented by the horn and the lyre (the strings of
which
are, significantly, broken) -- is a frequent vanitas element. Music
carries
a second, more profound message in vanitas painting, in that, the
performance
of music is inherently transitory. |
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Symbols
of war, or earthly conflict, are less frequently seen in vanitas
painting.
But here, Ord has included them in the forms of helmet, sword, breast
plate,
and ax [There must be a proper name for this implement of war with
which
I am unfamiliar. Cursory research should reveal it.] Perhaps here Ord
was
alluding to the sectional strife that was about to tear his country
apart. |
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The
single element for which I could find no precedent in European still
life
painting is the set of scales that lies in a heap on the ground as if
they
had been tossed there carelessly. I feel that this is a distinctly
American
motif and that it undoubtedly represents the scales of justice.
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This
painting is without doubt unprecedented in the history of American art.
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No
other painting comes close in size and iconographic richness and
complexity
until the work of William Michael Harnett beginning in the 1870s.
Perhaps
Ord was aware of the satirical still lifes of Charles Bird King, The
Vanity
of the Artist’s Dream, 1830 (Harvard University Art Museums, Cambridge,
Massachusetts) and The Poor Artist’s Cupboard (Corcoran Gallery of Art,
Washington, D.C.). King resided for some years in Philadelphia.”
[Cynthia
Seibels, New York, 1996] |
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