Idées et Tendances Basket 2017
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Description
Jan Steen, The World Turned Upside Down (“Beware of Luxury”), 1663 Famous genre painter; chose to portray upper middle class homes in absolute disarray; typically dutch homes where very orderly and clean Maid is asleep, little boy is smoking a pipe, the young woman has the man’s leg on her lap (incredibly inappropriate), little girl going through the valuable Two figures dressed in black are so focused looking at the book that they’re oblivious; the duck on the man’s shoulder indicates he is foolish Most of the strange happenings are based on dutch puns Basket is filled with crutches and begging cups with a message that says ‘beware of luxury’, making this a very much a moralizing painting; maybe people bought this as a warning Also may be similar to reality TV – having a painting that depicts home in such a way makes us feel better about ourselves
