Keltanen, Minerva
(Helsingin yliopisto, 2020)
This dissertation examines a group of ten images (eight paintings and two engravings), here called Serenade to a Cat after the painting located at the Sinebrychoff Art Museum in Helsinki. The subject belongs to the so-called pitture ridicole, or “ridiculous pictures,” which were intended to provoke laughter in the viewer. The motifs of laughter or the comic permeated visual art both in Italy and in the North with the rise of genre painting and commedia dell’arte at the end of the sixteenth century.
Motivated by the relationship between art and humor, my research locates the emergent theme in its historical and social context, seeking to resolve artist, date, and provenance by using the Helsinki painting as a case study. Here I employ a technical examination of materials, such as used by conservators. In the assessment of attribution, the provenance, stylistic, and compositional elements of the painting, in addition to the history of costumes, are taken into consideration.
The subject and comic plot of Serenade to a Cat are already alien to a modern viewer, yet the quantity of images employing the theme is striking. This study also illuminates art markets and the role of copies. The method of my investigation is a combination of iconography, a comparison of other closely related works, and historical contextualization. One of my premises in interpreting the theme is that it is linked to peasantry, folk rituals, Carnival, and theater. Furthermore, the possibility of blasphemous presentation is investigated. The peasants and the cat were common figures right from the start in early modern comic images. The peasants had connotations of being laughable, ugly, and acting foolishly, and the peasant became the most popular character in genre painting.
Two other painting groups, which I have titled as the Lombard group and the Carnival group, function as comparison groups, as they share a common and prominent visual feature—the cat. My work offers insights into the sociological and cultural attitudes toward cats during the early modern era. Cats had many powerful symbolic connotations and were associated with folkloristic beliefs. As charivaris, faire le chat, and other carnivalesque and festive examples of cat-torturing show, abuse and cruelty toward animals was also considered entertaining in the early modern era.
My research reveals that one could consider several explanations for the theme; thus, the artists or schools involved in the timeframe of 1580–1640 remain open for speculation. Serenade to a Cat images reveal the intensive artistic and cultural exchanges that took place in the early modern era between the North and Italy. This study advances our understanding of risible images in the early modern period, as well as how such images were appreciated in their own time. My research also contributes to the question of neglected works of art by minor unknown masters.
Keywords: Laughter, humor, comic, genre art, cat, peasants, carnivals, charivari, commedia dell’arte, blasphemy, pitture ridicole, early modern, sixteenth century, seventeenth century, Lombardy, Dutch art, Flemish art, French art, Italian art, attribution, provenance, art market, copy.