Boxing Day

Today, December 26, is Boxing Day. Although it is celebrated in Canada, in the UK, and other Commonwealth and European countries, we don’t pay much attention to it in the States. As in the U.S., this day now seems to be connected with deeply discounted shopping. But it was not always so.

St. Etienne, Caen, France

I had thought that Boxing Day was the day that friends and acquaintances exchanged gifts after the family Christmas festivities were over. And while that is true to some extent, since the Middle Ages it has been a day for tradespeople and servants to receive gifts from their employers and for the fortunate to share with those less so. No one knows why we call it “Boxing Day”. There is speculation that it had to do with the boxes of food and gifts given to servants, or the alms boxes placed outside of churches for collections for the Feast of St. Stephen (December 26). At any rate, the holiday has been most closely associated with the carol “Good King Wenceslas” about a saintly king who performed a charitable act on the Feast day of St. Stephen.

Good King Wenceslas looked out, on the Feast of Stephen,

When the snow lay round about, deep and crisp and even;

Brightly shone the moon that night, tho' the frost was cruel,

When a poor man came in sight, gath'ring winter fuel.

This carol has always reminded me of the lovely winter scenes painted by Northern European artists like the Limbourg brothers and the Brueghels (father and son)*. They were able to capture the look and feel of a dreary winter day like no other artists. The weak light and muted colors emphasize the raw bone chilling cold and difficult lives of their frequent subjects, the peasants, who lived lives so intimately linked to the cycles of nature.

Look closely at the Limbourg Brothers “February” page from Tres Riches Heures du Duc de Berry.

Limbourg Brothers, February, from Tres Riches Heures du Duc de Berry, 1412-16

We see a cozy, orderly scene.  After all, this was a page from a prayer book of sorts for the Duke, who needed to see that his lands and its people were organized and well cared for.  But we can also find evidence of some discomfort and hardship.   Two peasants are engaged in chopping wood and taking it away (for the Duke?)  Another peasant braves the cold; frosty breath rises from his mouth.  Like the sheep in the pen, the women and man inside the house are huddled together. They have removed their wet undergarments (there’s a bit of flashing going on!) and try to warm up before the fire.  Here, life is well-ordered and basic needs are met, but it is also difficult and uncomfortable.

"Hither, page, and stand by me, if thou know'st it, telling,

Yonder peasant, who is he? Where and what his dwelling?"

"Sire, he lives a good league hence, underneath the mountain;

Right against the forest fence, by Saint Agnes' fountain."

"Bring me flesh, and bring me wine, bring me pine logs hither:

Thou and I shall see him dine, when we bear them thither." 

Pieter Bruegel the Elder, The Peasant Wedding,  1567

Even peasants deserve a day of “flesh and wine”.  In Pieter Bruegel the Elder's painting the wedding feast takes place in a barn – the very place in which these peasants toil away day after day.  The repast is simple but abundant.  A nobleman, perhaps the landowner, is seen talking with a monk on the right side of the painting. 

Page and monarch, forth they went, forth they went together;

Through the rude wind's wild lament and the bitter weather.

"Sire, the night is darker now, and the wind blows stronger;

Fails my heart, I know not how; I can go no longer."

"Mark my footsteps, good my page. Tread thou in them boldly

Thou shalt find the winter's rage freeze thy blood less coldly."

Pieter Brueghel the Younger, Adoration of the Magi,  1600

Pieter Brueghel the Younger has staged his "Adoration" in a northern village in contemporary times. The wealthy magi make their way to the manger amidst the daily activities of village life.  Just like Good King Wenceslas, they lead, with servants and peasants following.

In his master's steps he trod, where the snow lay dinted;

Heat was in the very sod which the saint had printed.

Therefore, Christian men, be sure, wealth or rank possessing,

Ye who now will bless the poor, shall yourselves find blessing.

Happy Boxing Day to you all.  

*Pieter Bruegel the Elder dropped the "h" from his name.  His son, Pieter Brueghel the Younger, reinstated it.

Thanksgiving Portraits

As a child I spent every Thanksgiving with my family in Rhode Island.   My grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins lived there and we would travel from Massachusetts to gather at my grandparent’s house.  As the family grew to fifteen grandchildren, we would go to the golf club for a fancy turkey dinner.  Every few years a family portrait would be taken.  Thanks to the magic of scanning, I have two of those photos – one from when I was about six, the other maybe eight years later.  They are wonderful records of our family, of popular fashions and hair-dos and of portrait conventions of the 1960s and 70s.

(Notice the color coordinated families?)

These photographs got me thinking about a famous family portrait by Diego Velasquez – a far more interesting and complex work

In 1656, Diego Velazquez, the court artist to King Philip IV of Spain painted what is considered to be one of his finest and certainly his most popular painting.  It’s called Las Meninas, which means the Maids of Honor, although it had a different title originally.  It is, in essence, a family portrait.  We see the King and Queen’s five year old daughter, the Infanta, and the various officials, courtiers and maids who attend to her needs, and, in the background, we see the King and Queen reflected in a mirror.  We also see the well dressed artist at the left, painting a large canvas.

Diego Velazquez, Las Meninas,  1656 , Prado Museum, Madrid, Spain
http://www.wga.hu/index1.html

So, this is more than a portrait of the Infanta.  You might ask, why is she surrounded by all these people?  If she is the subject of the portrait, why are they present?  Are they that important?  And how can it be that the portrait painter, Velazquez, is featured here.  Who or what is he painting?  It can’t be the Infanta, can it?  And why are all those people looking at us?  Are we the subject of the painting?  If this is so, are we playing a role here?  Are we the King and Queen of Spain?   Our interpretation of the meaning of the painting is dependent upon whom we believe to be standing in front of it.  And we don’t have to choose just one explanation.  As we shift our viewpoints, we become aware of more possibilities of interpretation -- more questions and answers reveal themselves.  The philosopher Michael Foucault was fascinated by this aspect of the painting and described it eloquently in the introduction to his groundbreaking work, The Order of Things, “in this precise but neutral place, the observer and the observed take part in a ceaseless exchange.” 

When Las Meninas was created, Renaissance conventions of painting had long been established that ensured that we, the viewer, looked into a painting, into another space – as though we are looking through a window into another world that is ours to contemplate, yet remains separate from our own.  And now, a century and a half later, Velasquez challenges those conventions.  These people he has painted are not confined to their own space.  They are acknowledging the fiction of the painting and looking out at us.   And Velazquez has done something even more complex than involve us, his audience.  Since we are able to engage with this art work, and can change its meaning depending upon our questions, and our answers, the painting is not complete, nor is it entirely successful, unless we acknowledge and play our part in it. 

We keep looking – we play our part.  The ceaseless exchange endures in faded family photographs and in great masterpieces like Velasquez’s.

Tomorrow - ROMA!

Tomorrow we leave for Roma.  13 students, 2 dads, 3 alumni, 1 other colleague, a friend and I will spend 5-1/2 days in Rome, 2-1/2 days in Florence.  While we have a few scheduled tours, we will have a lot of free time.  I'm hoping that the 5 very talented photographers on this trip will take every opportunity to capture "Bella Italia" through their lenses..