The Influence of Dutch Genre Painting in Emblematic Prints: Jan Luyken’s Des Menschen, Begin, Midden en Einde (1712)

Abstract

This paper examines Dutch printmaker Jan Luyken’s visual strategy represented in his emblem book, Des Menschen Begin, Midden en Einde (1712). As a poet as well as a printmaker, Luyken wrote a poem in this book and produced image prints by himself. Jan Luyken has long been omitted from surveys of Dutch art due to the absence of archival evidence about his life and works. The themes that Luyken employed in his prints, such as parents’ virtue, mother and child, and children’s play, and his genre style, including doorsien, are all examples of contemporary pictorial devices of genre painting prevalent in Luyken’s time. An analysis of the similarities between Des Menschen Begin, Midden en Einde and contemporary genre paintings demonstrates that Luyken’s prints coincided with the development of Dutch Golden Age art. Luyken consciously employed a strategy of incorporating trendy interior items and idealized figures to make his pieces more attractive to his contemporaneous buyers. This is contrary to evaluations of him as an outdated artist indifferent to the contemporary art world.

1. Introduction

Jan Luyken (1649–1712)’s Des Menschen Begin, Midden en Einde (Man’s Beginning, Middle and End, 1712) is an emblem book describing Luyken’s meditation on each stage of human life (Figure 1). As an emblem book, each emblem consists of three parts: a title (motto), an image (pictura), and a subscription (subscriptio)1. Jan Luyken, who was a poet as well as a printmaker, wrote a subscription poem and produced image prints, which is a rare case in the seventeenth century since engravers and poets typically divided their functions in emblem production. For the body of the emblem, Luyken framed the picture between motto and poem (subscriptio), which is a typical emblem format. For instance, the emblem De Loopwagen (The Walker) (Figure 2) bears the motto: “Vereist de zwakheid leunen, God geeft zyn ondersteunen (The weakness requires leaning, God gives his support).” The picture beneath the motto illustrates a child is walking on a walker, and a father and mother are watching the child. Beneath the picture, Luyken wrote his own poem. This format continues in all emblems starting with the first, Het Kindje Geboren, to the last, De Mensch Sterft.

Jan Luyken has long been omitted from surveys of Dutch art due to the absence of archival evidence about his life and works. Little is known about Luyken’s education but documents from the municipal archives of Hague, dated 10 September, 1669, show that he married a singer and actress, Maria de Oudens (1646–1682) on 20 March 16722. Most Luyken scholarship focuses on his life, family background, and religious conversion.

Contemporary Dutch writer on art Arnold Houbraken (1660–1719) writes the following on Jan Luyken:

In his spare time J. Luyken practised in the Book of Jakob Böhme and Antonette Bourignon, and spoke and associated with almost no one except those attached to the same zealotry. In addition, he took his afternoon walk alone, and was otherwise quietly at home, always with elevated thoughts, both impassioned and dreamy, so that he often seemed to be a simple assistant to those who came to speak to him about the making of some illustrations. In short, the reading of the above-mentioned books brought him so far that he discharged himself from all work, and as the booksellers Mortier, vander Sys, and others, for whom he did much work, cancelled the same, he sold his property, kept a small portion, gave the rest to the poor, the same, left to live quietly off his faith with his old Maid, who survived him and later received some part of his inheritance: but [he] discovered in little time that his faith was not strong or powerful enough, and that his conceit was built on sand. As a consequence he was forced by necessity to return and to take up the etching needle once more to provide for his necessities by that means. The remainder he gave to the poor. So that when he came to die, his Son’s wife and small Son [,] named after his Grandfather [,] hardly bruised their fingers counting their inheritance.

[III: 255]3

According to Houbraken’ writing, Jan Luyken did not maintain good relationships with his family members or with his publishers. Obsessed with mystical thoughts, he led an isolated life. Based on this contemporary evidence, some analyses of Luyken have even emphasized the oddity of his association with the followers of Jacob Böhme or the eccentric Mennonites.4 Most scholars have located Luyken between the Catholic mystics and the Böhmists. Few writers ventured to place Luyken and his work in a wider context and many reinforced the perception of him as a maverick and outsider, a man out-of-place in his own century.

However, Luyken produced too many prolific works for him to be an isolated outsider. He made prints of more than 3000 book illustrations. He supplied twenty-eight etchings for the Dutch editions of John Bunyan (1628–1688)’s book, Eens Christens Reyse [The Pilgrim’s Progress] (1684)5. Luyken’s 104 etchings for the 1685 illustrated edition of The Martyrs’ Mirror by Thieleman J. van Braght (1625–1664) brought him great fame and success as a book illustrator and printmaker. His emblem books such as Spiegel van het Menslijk Bedryf (1694) and Het Leerzzam Huisraad (1711) were considered best sellers at the time.6

When Luyken worked with his emblem books in his early phase of emblem production, he drew on the mythological and fantastical elements in general emblem books at the time. Like his Jesuit predecessors, Luyken represented Cupid as that of an angelic, youth figure with halo and wings in his Jezus en de Ziel (1678) and Voncken de la Liefde Jesu (1682). In 1694, Jan Luyken achieved great success with Das Ständebuch (Book of profession), Spiegel van het Menselyk Bedryf in which he depicted the workplaces of one hundred professional workers. He applied spatial naturalism and realistic representation to his emblematic prints. Before Jan Luyken, printmakers for emblematic images such as Jacob Cats (1577–1660)’s Minne en Zinne Beelden (1614) and Roemer Visscher (1547–1620)’s Sinnepoppen (1614) introduced realism and aspects of everyday life into their emblematic prints, but they still used hieroglyphic and mythological elements like Putti and magnified symbols in a supernatural setting. Luyken, however, did not ignore perspective and did not exaggerate the size of the objects as in genre painting. Due to the popularity of the Spiegel van het Menselyk Bedryf, the pirate edition was published in Amsterdam and a genuine revision was published by the publisher Nicolas Fischer (1618–1709). The German publisher Christoph Weigel (1654–1725) published a German edition in Germany in 1698.7 After his success with the everyday genre scene, Luyken searched for a prospective topic for his new emblem book. The popular subject matters of contemporary genre painting would have been good motifs for him to publish his new emblem books.

Surveys of Dutch art have omitted not only the prints in Luyken’s emblem book, but also three thousand of his etchings. In addition, the printed emblematic images have been regarded as an adjunct to literature and have been overlooked within the realm of Dutch art. To date, there has been no scholarly writing on Des Menschen Begin, Midden en Einde. The sole monograph on Jan Luyken about his prints is Pieter van Eeghen’s book in collaboration with J.P. van der Kellen in 19058. More recently, Donna Barnes published two exhibition catalogues in 1995 and 19979. In this paper, I argue that Luyken’s art is modern for his time and that he was an active and prolific artist. To demonstrate this, I will analyze the stylistic devices Luyken employed from seventeenth-century Dutch genre paintings for his emblematic prints. This analysis will reveal how Luyken was engaged with the culture in which he lived and dispel the myths about him as an outdated or eccentric artist. Moreover, the analysis recognizes Luyken as an innovative engraver who made significant contribution to Dutch printmaking.

2. Influence of Genre Painting in Des Menschen Begin, Midden en Einde

As growing wealth of the Dutch Republic in the seventeenth century and emerging notions of civility, privacy, and domesticity shaped the middle classes’ buyers, Dutch artists knew the demand of the market and adjusted their production to meet buyers’ expectations. Painters responded to these changing tastes by making stylistic adjustments to their work and by introducing new themes into the genre painting. They also altered existing themes to render them appealing to increasingly urbane and moneyed buyers. Early seventeenth-century depictions of prostitution and vulgarity reduced and genre painters turned into domestic themes. Stylistically, they emphasized the renderings of textures and fabrics and light and shadow on figures and objects in carefully constructed spaces.10 Gerrit Dou (1613–1675), one of the most renowned genre painter who painted domestic imagery regularly, earned six hundred to a thousand guilders per picture11. The latter sum was nearly twice the amount of the average, annual middle-class salary in the Dutch republic and was sufficient to purchase a modest house at that time. In the case of Pieter de Hooch (1629–1684), after his relocation to Amsterdam around 1661, he responded enthusiastically to the stylistic and thematic changes for prospective buyers’ tastes12. De Hooch’s genre paintings usually commanded more modest prices than Gerrit Dou, but the highest of seventy-five guilders would have taken the average middle-class laborer nearly two months to earn.13

Due to the absence of archival evidence about Luyken’s life and works, little is known about his activities in the Dutch art market. However, Luyken would have seen the contemporary genre painting through exhibitions and art markets. In the Netherlands, various marketing channels were at work in art market. In addition to art dealers and patrons, there were public sales such as fairs, street sales, and lotteries14. Neil de March and Hans van Miegroert argued that the market is not a single, fixed entity, but a fluid arena with mutual actions among many individuals—between art dealers and painters, and between artists and audiences15. In 1665, Johan de Bye (1621–1672) showed 27 of Gerard Dow’s works in the front room of Johannes Honnot (1633–1684)’s house. An invitational advertisement appeared in the local newspaper, Haarlemische Courant to invite visitors16. In the Netherlands, there were opportunities for citizens to appreciate paintings, even if they were not affluent elites or private patrons.

2.1. Themes of Genre Painting in Des Menschen Begin, Midden en Einde

Most of the prints in Luyken’s Des Menschen Begin, Midden en Einde, portray a child and a family in household setting. Although the title of the book speaks of ‘stages of life’, 45 of 50 scenes of this book portray everyday life scenes of children. The titles of the most emblems are of the word ‘kind (kid)’. Luyken also mentioned that this book is dedicated to his grandson, Johannes Luyken, for his education in the preface. The readers of this book are designated as young boys and girls, and the purpose of this book is to educate foolish and simple children; he emphasizes it by using the word ‘education’, ‘opvoeding’. Similarities can be found between genre paintings featuring children and this emblem book in terms of subject matter. I will discuss Luyken’s choice of subject matter in view of the most popular subjects in his time.

2.1.1. Parents’ Virtue

Scenes of a good family were among the popular subjects in Dutch genre painting. Scholars have shown that Dutch Calvinistic society considered the household as the ideal setting for one’s moral and spiritual growth. Dutch Literature focused on the topics of marriage and the family appeared in the form of sermons. In addition, the detailed English domestic conduct books were available in the Netherlands and many of them were translated into Dutch.17 These domestic conduct books played an important role in shaping contemporary attitudes toward Dutch domestic life. The two most popular Dutch domestic conduct books which could have influenced the creation of Luyken’s Des Menschen Begin, Midden en Einde are Jacob Cats (1577–1660)’s Houwelyck published in 1625 and Petrus Wittewrongel (1609–1662)’s Oeconomia Christiana ofte Christelicke Huys-Houdinghe of 1661. Jacob Cats’ Houwelyck (Marriage) published in 1625 could have influenced the production of Luyken’s emblem book18.

As Franits points out, we see the parallels between written exposition of ideal domesticity and the portrayal of the same ideal in contemporary paintings.19 Genre paintings with themes of motherhood and family in the home interior are parallel with the contemporary writings of moralists and pastors20. Domesticity was a popular theme in art among the Dutch public, particularly during the second half of the seventeenth century. Luyken’s emblem Het Kindje Bid illustrates a mother teaching her daughter to pray (Figure 3) as in ‘family saying grace’ scenes in many Dutch genre paintings21.

Het Kindje Bid.

 

Leerd op den Eersten Oorsprong zien,

Daar alles goeds van moet geschiên.

 

Het Kindje moet van Jongs op leere,

Wat Vader en wat Moeder heeft,

Eerst komt van onze Lieven Heere,

Die ‘t broodje schept, en alles geeft;

En zeggen met zyn handjes zaamen:

Ik dank U, Lieven-Heertje, Amen.22

In the subtitle and the first line of subscritio, Luyken wrote the child must learn to look on the first origin through his or her parents. The picture also shows an exemplary mother who teaches her daughter how to pray and explain to her about God, which emphasizes the role of parents as educators. “Het Kind krijgt Pap” shows a mother feeding her child with spoon and a father also watching a spoon-fed baby. Many scenes represent teaching fathers as shown in the emblem De Loofwagen (Figure 2), Het Kind Gewaarschouwd and De Aankomeling.

The ‘housefather book’, a guide to introducing father’s roles, was published at the end of the sixteenth century. The housefather book, written by Johanne Coler, a doctor and Lutheran pastor, was reprinted nine times in the 17th century since its first publication in 159123. Coler defines an exemplary family head as one who is God-fearing, wise, understanding, experienced, prayerful, hard-working, and does no harm to any neighbor or family member. Above all, the head of the family must have rules and uphold the discipline and order of the family, which is the same as the Lutheran Antonius Corvinus’s comment on the head of the family24. Corvinus said that the head of household should exude fear as well as love, and that it is like a good government that allows both love and fear25. In the Dutch nuclear family, raising children was treated as a very important virtue. Martin Luther said that ‘children’ are the ‘souls of the family (Anima Domus) that revive life’, and God would be pleased if the father played with the children26. He also wrote that the importance of the mother is great during infancy, but from the age of six or seven onward, the father’s discipline plays a very important role27. Looking at the contents, we can see how moral, economic, and family responsibilities were imposed on heads of households in Dutch society. Luyken’s prints represent each member of the family performing appropriate and distinct behaviors as an ideal Christian family member. They present the concept of good family life and family cooperation as well as the virtues of the ideal parents (Figure 4). We also see contemporary furniture for children such as a walker in De Loopwagen (Figure 2), a high-chair in De Speelstoel (Figure 5), and a cradle in De Wieg (Figure 6), which is rarely seen in genre paintings of other countries and demonstrates Dutch parents’ interest in childrearing (Figure 7).

For the prints of Des Menschen Begin, Midden en Einde, Luyken also portrayed family members in a household setting. Luyken’s emblem Het Kindje Bid illustrates a mother advising her daughter (Figure 3), and many scenes represent teaching fathers as shown in emblem De Loofwagen (Figure 2), Het Kind Gewaarschouwd, and De Aankomeling. Luyken’s prints represent each member of the family performing an appropriate and distinct behaviors as a family member. These family scenes are reminiscent of contemporary family portrait and genre painting and present the concept of good family life and family cooperation as well as the wealth of the family (Figure 4).

2.1.2. Mother and Child

Most women play a role of mother or maid in Des Menschen Begin, Midden en Einde. They are engaged in a wide variety of wholesome activities relevant to home and family, and are absorbed in their activities such as cleaning, spinning, and childrearing. There are hundreds of surviving images of women showing their domestic virtue in Dutch genre painting.

Childrearing was an ongoing female subject in Dutch genre painting. Cats describes the virtues of marriage and decorum of the perfect wife in the form of lengthy poems as Luyken’s poems in Des Menschen Begin, Midden en Einde do. Each of the six chapters in Cats’ Houwelyck portrays a specific stage of woman’s life28. In particular, the discussions in Des Menschen Begin, Midden en Einde are presented in the “Moeder” sections.

We find many exemplary diligent women and attentive mothers watching their children in Luyken’s prints. Luyken’s scenes of women engaged in their work are reminiscent of contemporary genre paintings by Pieter de Hooch and his colleagues. Their pictures capture the serenity of a well-kept house regardless of their class differences. They delineate the virtue of women appropriate for their roles. Luyken seems to have been inspired by their topics. For instance, De Loopwagen (Figure 2) and De Wieg (Figure 6) illustrate a woman doing needlework, which was regarded as a virtuous female work in the seventeenth-century Netherlands29.

‘Mother and child’ is a main theme in Des Menschen begin, Midden en Einde. Emblem De Wieg depicts a mother soothing a baby in a cradle (Figure 6). The accompanying text counsels that the person who rocks the cradle should take good care of the child so that he does not get stained by the world.

De Wieg

 

Het wiegen is voor ‘t Kind wel goed,

Maar niet voor die niet slaapen moet.

 

Die ‘t Kindje wiegden, tot geryven,

En liet het by het Kindje blyven,

Maar waakten, op zyn Eigen Hert;

Op dat het niet van ‘s Werelds Minne,

Door ‘t wiegen van verstrooide zinne,

In zonden slaap gehouden werd.30

Similar composition is found in Rembrandt’s Holy Family with Angels (Figure 8), Gerard Dou’s Nature, Reason, and Practice (1660), and Pieter de Hooch’s Mother Lacing Her Bodice beside a Cradle (1659). In keeping with the Dutch moralists’ views, genre painting deals with child rearing as an important issue for a virtuous woman. For instance, Pieter de Hooch’s Mother Nursing, with Child Feeding a Dog (1658–1660) represents a mother as an exemplary model for her daughter in which the care and rectitude of a nursing mother are imitated by the older child who feeds a dog from a cooking pot (Figure 9) 31.

Among fifty emblems in Des menschen, Begin, Midden en Einde, twenty emblems depict a child-caring mother. Particularly, Het Kindje Gaat School depicts a mother introducing her child to a school and De Roede (The Rod) represents a mother admonishing her child with a cane, which demonstrate the active role of mothers as educators.

2.1.3. Children at Play

Luyken’s emblem, Het Kind Blaast Bellen (The Child Blows Bubbles) (Figure 10), De Loopwagen (the Walker) (Figure 2), De Kolf (Golf), and De Hoepel (the Hoop) are the popular subject that both contemporary genre painters and emblem writers have been interested in. Children’s games and toys had symbolic significance prior to Luyken’s time, and they could be either good or bad models and used to express innocence and childhood32. Otherwise, they could function as reminders of the vanity and transiency of earthly matters. From the viewpoint of critics against games, play means idleness which also reminded them of leisure time that Calvinists regarded with disapprobation33. In Dutch art, games and plays are portrayed as a precursor to adults’ vices and the pleasures of later years. Painters emphasized the didactic nature of children’s plays whether they were good or bad models. According to Durantini, the use of games as aids to understand or allude to adult themes is new in the seventeenth century34. In Caspar Netscher (1639–1684)’s Two Boys Blowing Bubbles (1670), one child is blowing bubbles and another child tries to catch them, which symbolize the pursuit of world pleasures (Figure 10). Luyken also sums up this message in his emblems, Het Kind Blaast Bellen (The Child Blows Bubbles) (Figure 11).

Het Kind Blaast Bellen.

 

Gelyk de rond geblaazen Bel,

Wat is al ‘s Werelds vreugd en Spel?

 

Een ied’le wind en Water-bel.

Na dat hy sierlyk was verscheenen,

(Tot vreugd van ‘t kinderlyk gestel)

Weêr oogenblik’lyk is verdweenen:

Zo is de wereld in haar staat,

Die haar beminnaars snel verlaat.35

Here, Luyken emphasized the children’s preoccupation with transiency. His De Blaas (Bladder) talks about the worldly vanity and De Kolf (Golf) connotes wasteful pleasure. Het Houte Stokpaard (The Wooden Hobby Horse), De pop (Doll), Het Fluitje (The Whistle), De Trommel (Drum) and De Hoepel (Hoop) were all described as negative motifs symbolizing frivolous pastime as represented in genre painting.

However, if there is a slight difference from the general genre painting, a religious overtone is added to the subscriptio; this emblem book is a Protestant emblem book. Luyken’s De Loopwagen (the Walker), for example, shows a shift in meaning from previous uses.

Vereist de zwakheid leunen,

God geeft zyn ondersteunen.

 

Dus moet het Kindje leeren gaan,

Wyl ‘t op zyn voetjes niet kan staan:

Zo onderschraagd ons ook de Heere;

Op dat wy, als een zwak gestel,

Niet vallen zouden in de Hel,

Maar zo den gang ten Hemel leeren.36

Objects for children and children’s games were usually used to warn against the world’s desires and temptations and to emphasize the shortness of life. Although the walker usually symbolizes the weakness of human beings, here it emphasizes God’s help and protection. It can be seen as Luyken’s innovative point that he changed the negative symbol into a positive hopeful symbol by presenting hope for heaven. In Het Molentje, the pinwheel which symbolized the foolishness of children is depicted here as a guardian of a face that keeps the faith even when the cold wind blows and the face turns red.

2.2. Style of Contemporary Dutch Painting in Des Menschen Begin, Midden en Einde

Before Luyken, child scenes were rarely depicted in Dutch literature. According to Durantini, kinderspel (children at play) texts were published without imagery until the seventeenth century37. The tradition of children’s imagery in Lowland traces back to Brughel’s Children’s Games (1560), in which almost one hundred games and plays are gathered in one scene. Brughel included games that mimic adult ceremonies such as the mass, and the bridal and religious processions. Sloan states that it may be illustrating the popular adage, “it is child’s play”,38 which signifies something worthless or meaningless. Unlike Brughel, Luyken broke this cityscape composition down into its basic components and added moral meaning to individual parts. He focused on individual activities and individual games. Previous child scenes were intended to teach adults even if the main characters were children, but here, children appeared as the main characters for child readers. The children played an exemplary role to teach moral lessons. In addition, the texts were also designed for prospected children readers—the long stanzas previously seen in Luyken were shortened below 10 lines.

The compositions of Luyken’s prints demonstrate his experimentation on how to compose the picture plane. He adopted many pictorial devices used by genre painters. I will examine what Luyken adopted from contemporary genre paintings and transformed for his prints. When Luyken worked with his emblem books in his early phase of emblem production, he drew on the mythological and fantastical elements in general emblem books at the time. From his Spiegel van het Menselyck Bedryf Bedryf of 1694 on, Luyken used popular genre styles; he applied spatial naturalism and realistic representation to his emblematic prints. He did not ignore perspective and did not exaggerate the size of the objects. I will examine the pictorial devices Luyken employed from seventeenth-century Dutch genre painting. Therefore, I will reveal how Luyken was engaged with the culture and demonstrate that Luyken’s art is contemporary to his time.

2.2.1. Window on a Wall and Doorsien

The inclusion of windows and outdoor views became conventional devices for genre paintings of the interior. The outside view through the window or door came to occupy a significant amount of space on a picture plane in genre painting. For example, Jan Steen’s (1626–1679) Country Wedding (1666, (Figure 12)) encloses the window and the doorway in the whole space of his picture plane. Unlike his contemporary emblem print makers who describe the event set in an interior scene, Luyken actively employed windows or doors that show a view to the outside in Des Menschen begin, Midden en Einde. This device contributes to the impression of spatial openness and the appearance of landscape. For instance, an outdoor view through a window and a door in Luyken’s De Loopwagen (Figure 2) and De Wieg (Figure 6) contributes to create spatial openness and gives a look of townscape.

Not only a view to the outside, but a view into another chamber is also one of the pictorial conventions of contemporary interior scenes. Scholars have termed this pictorial device “perspective, doorsien [see through]” which divides pictures into two or more spaces to open up the painted scene. We find many northern examples of an inclusion of a distant view into an ancillary space in religious painting. As an early example, The Virgin and Child in a Domestic Interior (1467) by Petrus Christus (1410–1475) includes a view into another chamber.39 In the seventeenth century, such rendition of secondary space developed with the newly published treatises such as De Vries’s Perspective of 1604, Samuel Marolois (1572–1627)’s Opera Mathemitaica, and Hendrik Hondius (1573–1650)’s Grondige Onderrichtinge in de Optica, ofte Perpective Konste [Complete instructions in optics, or the art of perspective] of 1622. These treatises offered the illustrations which became the important sources for the interior painting.

The art theorists of the time such as Karel van Mander (1548–1606) and Samuel van Hoogstraten (1627–1678) also advocated that artists deploy perspective views 40. Karel van Mander urged painters to create small pockets of space in landscape painting so that it could draw the viewer’s eyes deep into a picture. In his chapter of “On Ordering”, van Mander writes:

Our composition should enjoy a fine quality, for the delight of our sense, if we allow there a view (insien) or vista (doorsien) with small background figures and a distant landscape, into which the eyes can plunge. We should take care sometimes to place our figures in the middle of the foreground, and let one see over them for many miles.41

Van Mander was a Mennonite belonging to an Old Flemish denomination in Haarlem and Jan Luyken joined the Mennonite congregation in Beverwijck near Amsterdam42. Since Van Mander also wrote a song book combined with a devotional content, Luyken would have known him as a poet as well as an artist and he could have read van Manders’ works.

Influenced by French theory, Gerard De Lairesse (1641–1711) also dealt with the issue of assembling primary and secondary scenes in a single picture. In his Groot Schilderboek [Great Painter’s Book] published in 1707, De Lairesse recommended the use of secondary spaces to enhance a narrative43.

Luyken’s prints in Het Kindje Beschermd, Het Kindje Bid (Figure 3), Het Kindje Gaat Na Bed (Figure 13), and De Mensch Steft show a view to another room through the use of “doorsien”. We see the view of a back room connected to a room or a view of the outside through a window and a door. Close parallels are found in the works of Gabriel Metsu and Pieter de Hooch (Figure 14). They used doorways and windows as exterior frames for the effect of spatial expansion. The print medium normally expresses itself in monochrome but the technique of doorsien introduces greater openness and variety into the monotonous tonality of prints. Luyken actively applied doorsien in almost all of his home interior scenes. His other emblem books such as Spiegel van het Menselyk Bedryf (1694) and Het Leerzaam Huisraad (1711) also show doorsien.

2.2.2. Furniture Arrangement

Luyken’s Het Kindje Geboren (Figure 15) places the cupboard at a diagonal toward the right wall with a mistress and a maid in front of the chest. In De Wieg (Figure 6), the cupboard is placed on the background parallel to the picture plane. This arrangement of the cupboard that occupies one side of the wall is frequently seen in many contemporary genre paintings.

It is not only Luyken’s arrangement of a cupboard, but also his placement of the hearth and the bed that is reminiscent of contemporary genre painting. He represented a hearth on one sidewall then located figures in front of the hearth. Pieter de Hooch’s interior such as Mother nursing and a child feeding a dog (1658–1660) (Figure 4) and Woman Peeling Apples (1663) portray a halcyon world of comfort by locating figures in front of the hearth. Particularly, a nursing mother with cradle before the hearth is the typical composition commonly found in genre painting. Rembrandt’s two versions of Holy Family also could be examples.

Curtains at either side of the bed to shield from the cold air and fabric valences enclosing the four corners of bed or hearth are also recognized in Luyken’s emblems. The emblems Het Kind Ga Na Bed (Figure 13) and De Mensch Sterft show a bed valence over the curtains hung over the bed. A hearth valence is seen in all emblems depicting a hearth: Het Kindje Bedend and Het Kindje Beschermd.

A table covered with a Turkish carpet is conventionally used for the composition. Fock has questioned the real existence of a Turkish carpet in an actual Dutch home44, but many examples are found in genre paintings as well as Luyken’s prints. Johannes Vermeer (1632–1675) often employed such objects in his composition. His Geographer (1668), Lady Writing a Letter with her Maid (1670, National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin), and Young Woman with a Water Jug (1662, Metropolitan Museum of Art) are some examples. Like Vermeer, Luyken situates a table covered with a Turkish carpet in the lower left of Het Kind Gaat na Bed (Figure 13).

Another convention is the inclusion of a chair or small object in the empty space on the picture plane. The emblems Het Kindje Gebooren and Het Kind Gaat na Bed (Figure 13) illustrate a chair on one corner of a room. The inclusion of small objects or furniture gives a picture plane a more decorative look and a cozier mood. Pieter Janses Elingar’s Interior with a Woman Reading (1670) and Gerrit Dou’s Woman at the Toilette (1667) are some examples.

2.2.3. Stylization of Figures

As for Luyken’s figures, they do not show any of the vulgarity often encountered in the peasant scenes (Figure 2 and Figure 3). Luyken’s figures were respectable characters such as members of a wholesome family—father, mother, sons, and daughters or diligent maids and servants—and friendly neighbors. Slothful figures are never encountered within them. They are a simple and noble type of common people. In regard to their poses, Luyken’s figures do not show any excessive motion or contortion of the body. Crossed legs are not shown, as contemporary art theorists such as Giovanni Della Casa (1503–1556), Gian Paolo Lomazzo (1538–1592), and Samuel van Hoogstraten had disapproved45. Their facial expressions are calm and peaceful. In the works of high-quality genre painters such as Frans van Mieris (1635–1681), Gerbrand van den Eeckhout (1621–1674), and Eglon van der Neer (1634–1703), the women have almost identical appearances: beautiful faces, hair styles, white skin and graceful gestures made with their arms, hands, and fingers. Junko Aono has asserted that the most remarkable aspect of early eighteenth-century genre painting is the stylization of the figures46. Contemporary Dutch art theorists such as van Mander, van Hoogstraten, Goeree (1635–1711), and De Laireisse discussed the fine quality of painting and the figures’ postures, gestures, and movements47. French art theorists condemned any realism in depicting physical traits. This tendency influenced Dutch painters. For instance, Nicholas Maes (1634–1693) worked at first in a dark and Rembrandt-esque manner and changed his style, after having settled in Amsterdam in 1673, in favor of a lighter, more elegant one. He began to display smooth surfaces and bright tonalities. According to Wayne Franits, this had to do with more than just the impact of French art theory and, in fact, was directly related to notions of civility and honnêteté prevalent among the contemporary Dutch elite48.

In Luyken’s figures, we see contrapposto, graceful swelling of a hip and elegant uprightness, which were recommended for the depiction of better educated people. Most of Luyken’s emblems (Figure 6 and Figure 15) show a woman with the contrapposto pose. They stand with most of their weight on one foot, and their shoulders and arms twist off axis from the hips and legs. Contrapposto gives the figures a more graceful and relaxed appearance. The mood of calm and refinement from them in each emblem parallel that of figures in late seventeenth-century high-quality genre painting.

2.2.4. Classical Attire

Concerning fashion, Luyken’s figures are clothed in antique garb. Men are wearing the “tabbard”, a form of housecoat called a japonese rock49, or hemdrock, a waist coat, worn over a shirt to provide warmth50. The emblems De Loofwagen (Figure 2) and Het Kindje Crygt Pap show a father-figure wearing a tabbard, and a silk kimono was used as a house robe among the elite in the Dutch Republic during the late seventeenth and eighteenth centuries51. Two men on the right in De Blaas are wearing hemdrock. These items often appear in the works of genre painters such as Jan Miense Molaenaer (1610–1668), Gabriel Metsu (1629–1667), or Johannes Vermeer. We see a scholar dressed in a kimono in Vermeer’s Geographer. The tabbard rapidly acquired value among gentlemen as status symbols in the Dutch Republic and other European countries52. Luyken’s choice of the tabbard reflects the taste of contemporary elites as well as the influence of contemporary genre painters.

In addition, Luyken’s dresses show many wrinkles in drapery. In Het Kindje Ga Na Bed (Figure 13), Het Kindje Geboren (Figure 15) and De Mensch Sterft, rich drapery is conspicuous. De Laireisse, in his treatise Het Groot Schilderboeck (The Art of Painting) of 1707, described rich drapery appropriate for the illustration for noble type. During the 1650s and 1660s, the timeless quality of the loose, romantic dress was appreciated and by the end of the century, and dresses with ample folds had become a convention in painting. Later, De Lairesse, who disapproved of contemporary dress, advised painters to mingle the current fashion with painterly Roman dress because the draperies and fluttering shawls gave the sitter a classical look. According to Marieke de Winkel, the simplified, timeless quality of the classical drapery was perceived as a virtue in the eyes of contemporary viewers53. De Lairesse belonged to NIL (Nil Volentibus Arduum), the Amsterdam literary society, which many poets and elites of the time belonged to54. Luyken, as a poet who had connection with numerous publishers, would have known NIL and De Lairesse. As an artist, he would have known the contents of De Lairesse’s Het Groot Schilderboeck.

Similarly, Willem Goeree (1635–1711) also advised artists to make themselves familiar with old customs and habits to acquire knowledge of ‘antique’ clothes and ornaments such as turbans, caps, bonnets, and arms55. Although they were not classical fashion items, Luyken faithfully rendered what he observed in his surroundings. Caps are illustrated in almost all of Luyken’s emblems as contemporary foreign travelers reported that Dutch men always wore hats, both indoors and out56.

3. Des Menschen Begin, Midden en Einde and Contemporary Dutch Prints

Luyken not only adopted stylistic devices of genre painting, but adapted them to his own medium, prints. According to Ackley, a scene of upper-class life is rare in Dutch prints outside book illustrations57. Indeed, scenes of clean interiors and elegant people are comparatively rare in Dutch prints but are common in genre painting. From the early seventeenth century on, some print artists adopted designs by painters and experimented with their burin technique for prints. For instance, an engraving by Cornelis van Kittensteyn (1598–1652) is based on a design in a lost painting by Dirck Hals (1591–1656). To create textual contrasts and luminous effects in rich clothing and in objects displayed in the interior, Van Kittensteyn used tight and delicate lines. In Luyken’s time, Romeyn de Hoogh (1645–1708) was considered one of the most well-known print artists. De Hoogh supplied a considerable number of book illustrations, but he was more concerned with political propaganda and classical mythology. Although de Hoogh printed genre images for illustrations of the book, his style is rather more classical and reminiscent of early Dutch print artists such as Hendrick Goltzius (1558–1617) and Crispijn de Passe (1564–1637). However, Luyken prints do not show their muscular bodies or dynamic compositions. As another influence on Luyken’s neat style, Ackley suggests the influence of the French print maker, Abraham Bosse (1604–1676)58. As a pupil of a well-known print maker, Jacques Callot (1592–1635), who mainly worked with genre prints, Bosse etched genre scenes and religious works in a modern style. For instance, Bosse’s scene of a woman bookseller, La Galerie du Palais, reflects his interest in contemporary fashion and workshop interiors which is parallel with Luyken’s prints in Spiegel van het Menselyk Bedryf and Des Menschen Begin, Midden en Einde.

In the seventeenth century, Dutch emblem illustrators were also interested in the representation of the domestic interior. Jacob Cats’ Sinne- en minne-beelden [Emblems and Love Scenes] (1614), and Pieter Corneliszoon Hooft (1581–1647)’s Emblemata Amatoria show the domestic interior in the literary genre of emblem. Later emblem illustrators such as those for Jan Hermensz Krul (1602–1646), Jan Claesz Schaep (1640–?), and Adrianus Poirters (1605–1674) also displayed their subject motifs in domestic interiors. However, as in old emblematic prints, Putti still exist, and huge objects are placed in the center to emphasize the theme. Whereas Luyken’s early religious emblems such as Jezus en de ziel (1678) and Voncken der lifde Jesu (1682) show the supernatural setting and the figures with halo or horns, Des Menschen Begin, Midden en Einde does not contain any mystical elements of the early period. From his Spiegel van het Menselyck Bedryf of 1694 on, Luyken preferred the realistic representation pursuing spatial naturalism in the Dutch domestic interiors. In most of Luyken’s emblem prints, perspective is not ignored and proportion is not exaggerated.

Luyken was interested not only in domestic interior scenes but also in nocturnal prints. Night scenes convey the print makers’ exploration of highly-contrasted light and dark. Printmakers pursued tone rather than lines and added the painterly approach to printmaking. Although the first nocturnal print was done by a Dutch printmaker, Lucas van Leyden, its production was rare in the sixteenth century. In the seventeenth-century, Dutch print makers produced reproductive prints of nocturnal scenes by the German artist, Adam Elsheimer (1578–1610) and they became popular at the late seventeenth century. In 1699 the French writer on art, Florent Le Comte (1655–1712) described the ideal print collection; “one of the many volumes composing the collection featured the representations of night scenes and black pieces of different masters of all nations, but the only masters mentioned were Dutch.”59 Dutch nocturnal prints achieved international fame and many reproductive works of candle-light pieces were produced until the eighteenth century. In particular, the mezzotint technique used from 1642 in Amsterdam was suitable for depicting night scenes, which enabled the printmakers to modulate light and shade from white and delicate grey to depths of velvet black. Although Luyken didn’t use the mezzotint technique for his emblem books, since the mezzotint was usually produced as an independent art piece, Luyken presented the nocturnal scenes in Het Kindje Gaat Na Bed (Figure 13) with engraving. His nocturnal scenes reflect Luyken’s desire to produce engravings with dark qualities and flickering illuminations. We find many nocturnal prints throughout his other emblems. Not only interested in nocturnal pieces, Luyken was a virtuoso at the depiction of weather. We see variety of clouds in the sky engraved with parallel and cross hatchings in Des Menschen Begin, Midden en Einde (Figure 5). His other emblem book, Beschouwing der Wereld published in 1708, includes scenes of a rainy sky. Luyken’s painterly approach using tonalities and his hatching and tight lines demonstrate his mastery of the linear systems of contemporary engraving and etching. Considering Luyken’s print technique and subject matter, Luyken kept up with his contemporary print makers. Luyken’s painterly approach through his lines and tonality shows his affinity with the latest trend in Dutch printmaking.

As a printmaker, Luyken produced countless illustrations for publishers in the Netherlands and Germany. Although he was a Mennonite, Luyken did not seem to concern himself with his publishers’ diverse religious affinities and actively worked with them whenever he received commissions. Among the 340 books that Luyken supplied illustrations for, seventy one books were published by Reformed Jan ten Hoorn (1639–1714)’s de Ten Hoorn c.s., and nineteen books by Reformed Johannes Boekholt (1656–1693)’s de Boekholts60. Nicolaus Visser (1649–1702), who published Spiegel van het Menschelyk Bedryf of 1694, Hendrik Boom (1644–1709), and Francois Halma (1653–1712) were also Reformed publishers61. Among Mennonite publishers, Luyken worked on ten books with the Mennonite Collegiant, Pieter Arentz (1633/4–1688) and his Arentz c.s., and eight books with Jan Rieuwertz (1616/7–1687). After Arentz.’s death, his widow, along with their son-in-law, Kornelius van der Sys, took over the company. Kornelius van der Sys published Des Menschen Begin, Midden en Einde in 1712. Rotterdam Remonstrant Barent Bos also gave Luyken nine commissions. Van Eeghen surmised that between 4500 to 5000 etchings and engravings in Dutch books have been attributed to Jan and his son, Casper Luyken62.

4. Conclusions

An analysis of the similarities between Des Menschen Begin, Midden en Einde and contemporary genre paintings demonstrates that Luyken’s prints coincided with the development of Dutch Golden Age art. The fifty prints in Des Menschen Begin, Midden en Einde show that Luyken observed the contemporary visual tradition, material culture, buyers’ interests, and social concerns. The subject matters embrace the issues of woman’s role, education for children and domestic conduct, which was consistent with Dutch paintings of his time. Luyken consciously employed a strategy of incorporating trendy interior items and idealized figures to make his pieces more attractive to his buyers63. He was aware of the power of genre images and the suitability of such images for his religious emblem book. Although the luxury and extravagance had been on going moral issues for Dutch religious leaders, Luyken depicted them as a strategy to attract his buyers.

Moreover, Luyken dedicates this book to his grandson, Johannes Luyken for his education, since his son Caspar died in 1708. Considering the presumed readership of the emblem books in Luyken’s time, we could surmise that this book might also have functioned as a catalogue of what to include in a healthy household, providing practical and spiritual guidance. I argue that this is evidence of Luyken’s conscious integration into the movements of his period to dispel the myths about Luyken as an outdated or isolated artist.