Home Perfected: Pieter de Hooch and New Ideals of Domesticity in the Dutch Republic University of Delaware, 2011 - Dwellings The Delft works of Pieter de Hooch (1629-1684) exemplify domestic virtue in their depictions of scenes of everyday life. Charming and evocative, they portray the household in the Dutch Republic that we think we recognize: mothers keeping their quaint homes clean and orderly and watching over their playful children, while men are absent, perhaps to avail themselves of business opportunities that the Dutch Golden Age offered. This thesis deconstructs two of de Hooch's works, The Bedroom and Woman Nursing an Infant with a Child Feeding a Dog . In order to understand the domesticity in de Hooch's paintings it is important to analyze in detail his use of material culture and the elements that comprised the décor of the times, such as paintings, pottery, and birdcages. De Hooch's painting present space, figures, emotions, light, and color in a distinct style that is both idealizing and highly realistic. These elements resemble in part and differ in part from the styles of other Dutch painters of the Golden Age. In conclusion, I propose that for the fledgling Dutch Republic, with the ordeal of the Eighty Years War behind it, such artworks offered a useful lesson for a new society. His paintings helped to create and reinforce the Zeitgeist of the new republic. The two paintings at the center of this study confirmed the senses of nostalgic ideas of home and of morality that they put forth and inspired the members of the community to emulate. |
