![Pieter Aertsen 002](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/44/Pieter_Aertsen_002.jpg)
Peiraikos, or Piraeicus, was an Ancient Greek painter of uncertain date and location. None of his work is known to have survived and he is known only from a brief discussion by the Latin author
Pliny the Elder
Gaius Plinius Secundus (AD 23/2479), called Pliny the Elder (), was a Roman author, naturalist and natural philosopher, and naval and army commander of the early Roman Empire, and a friend of the emperor Vespasian. He wrote the encyclopedic '' ...
. Pliny's passage comes in the middle of his discussion of painting in Book XXXV of his ''
Natural History'', completed about 78 AD:
It is well to add an account of the artists who won fame with the brush in painting smaller pictures. Amongst them was Peiraikos. In mastery of his art but few take rank above him, yet by his choice of a path he has perhaps marred his own success, for he followed a humble line, winning however the highest glory that it had to bring. He painted barbers' shops, cobblers' stalls, asses, eatables and similar subjects, earning for himself the name of ''rhyparographos'' ainter of dirt/low things In these subjects he could give consummate pleasure, selling them for more than other artists received for their large pictures.
In the terms of later art history, he painted
cabinet painting
A cabinet painting (or "cabinet picture") is a small painting, typically no larger than two feet (0.6 meters) in either dimension, but often much smaller. The term is especially used for paintings that show full-length figures or landscapes at a s ...
s of
genre subjects. Generally speaking, Pliny seems to derive his information from
Varro
Marcus Terentius Varro (; 116–27 BC) was a Roman polymath and a prolific author. He is regarded as ancient Rome's greatest scholar, and was described by Petrarch as "the third great light of Rome" (after Vergil and Cicero). He is sometimes calle ...
(116 BC – 27 BC), and Peiraikos may have been contemporary with or somewhat earlier than him, placing the painter at the end of the
Hellenistic
In Classical antiquity, the Hellenistic period covers the time in Mediterranean history after Classical Greece, between the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC and the emergence of the Roman Empire, as signified by the Battle of Actium in ...
period or in the early Graeco-Roman period. From his tone, it seems that "Pliny does not know how to judge Piraeicus". Early Modern commentators were to take both approving and disapproving attitudes to later artists compared to him, often assuming that Pliny's meaning followed their own. Peiraikos' subjects may well have been given a comic treatment, but this is not clear. Some equivalent subjects survive in
Roman art
The art of Ancient Rome, and the territories of its Republic and later Empire, includes architecture, painting, sculpture and mosaic work. Luxury objects in metal-work, gem engraving, ivory carvings, and glass are sometimes considered to be mi ...
, especially in shops and shopfronts in
Pompeii
Pompeii (, ) was an ancient city located in what is now the ''comune'' of Pompei near Naples in the Campania region of Italy. Pompeii, along with Herculaneum and many villas in the surrounding area (e.g. at Boscoreale, Stabiae), was buried ...
, small sections of floor
mosaic
A mosaic is a pattern or image made of small regular or irregular pieces of colored stone, glass or ceramic, held in place by plaster/mortar, and covering a surface. Mosaics are often used as floor and wall decoration, and were particularly pop ...
s, and in the reliefs of men at work on the
Tomb of Eurysaces the Baker
The tomb of Marcus Vergilius Eurysaces the baker is one of the largest and best-preserved freedman funerary monuments in Rome. Its sculpted frieze is a classic example of the "plebeian style" in Roman sculpture. Eurysaces built the tomb for hims ...
in Rome (c. 50–20 BC), but it is interesting to know that such subjects were popular with collectors at the top end of the Roman art market.
Propertius
Sextus Propertius was a Latin elegiac poet of the Augustan age. He was born around 50–45 BC in Assisium and died shortly after 15 BC.
Propertius' surviving work comprises four books of ''Elegies'' ('). He was a friend of the poets Gallus a ...
makes a reference to a painter of "small art" in his ''Elegies'', but the surviving text is corrupt, and it is generally thought to intend a reference to the 5th century BC Athenian painter
Parrhasios, whose ''
trompe-l'œil
''Trompe-l'œil'' ( , ; ) is an artistic term for the highly realistic optical illusion of three-dimensional space and objects on a two-dimensional surface. ''Trompe l'oeil'', which is most often associated with painting, tricks the viewer into ...
'' painted curtain fooled
Xeuxis, an anecdote reported in another passage of Pliny.
In Early Modern art criticism
Peiraikos became frequently referred to in discussions of art in the late
Renaissance
The Renaissance ( , ) , from , with the same meanings. is a period in European history marking the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and covering the 15th and 16th centuries, characterized by an effort to revive and surpass ideas ...
and especially the
Baroque
The Baroque (, ; ) is a style of architecture, music, dance, painting, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished in Europe from the early 17th century until the 1750s. In the territories of the Spanish and Portuguese empires including t ...
periods, when genre subjects were becoming popular again, and the need for classical authority was still strongly felt. The ambiguous tone of Pliny's comments allowed later writers to enlist Pliny on either side of the argument for and against Peiraikos' humble modern equivalents. One of the first artists to specialize in genre subjects,
Pieter Aertsen
Pieter Aertsen (1508 – 2 June 1575), called ''Lange Piet'' ("Tall Pete") because of his height, was a Dutch painter in the style of Northern Mannerism. He is credited with the invention of the monumental genre scene, which combines still life ...
was an innovative late-16th-century painter of kitchen scenes, who was compared to Peiraikos by the Dutch
Renaissance humanist
Renaissance humanism was a revival in the study of classical antiquity, at first in Italy and then spreading across Western Europe in the 14th, 15th, and 16th centuries. During the period, the term ''humanist'' ( it, umanista) referred to teache ...
Hadrianus Junius
Hadrianus Junius (1511–1575), also known as Adriaen de Jonghe, was a Dutch physician, classical scholar, translator, lexicographer, antiquarian, historiographer, emblematist, school rector, and Latin poet.
He is not to be confused with several ...
(Adriaen de Jonghe, 1511–1575) in his ''Batavia'', published posthumously in 1588, which compares Aertsen at each point of Pliny's description in a wholly laudatory manner. An article by Zoran Kwak argues that a painting by his son
Pieter Pietersz the Elder (1540–1603), normally called ''Market Scene with the Journey to Emmaus'', which features prominently a half-naked figure who is clearly a cook (with Jesus and his companions as smaller figures behind him), in fact represents a
self-portrait
A self-portrait is a representation of an artist that is drawn, painted, photographed, or sculpted by that artist. Although self-portraits have been made since the earliest times, it is not until the Early Renaissance in the mid-15th century tha ...
in a partly comic spirit, depicted as Peiraikos.
Pieter van Laer
Pieter Bodding van Laer (christened 14 December 1599, Haarlem – 1641 or later) was a Dutch painter and printmaker. He was active in Rome for over a decade and was known for genre scenes, animal paintings and landscapes placed in the environs ...
(1599 – c. 1642) was a
Dutch Golden Age painter
Dutch Golden Age painting is the painting of the Dutch Golden Age, a period in Dutch history roughly spanning the 17th century, during and after the later part of the Eighty Years' War (1568–1648) for Dutch independence.
The new Dutch Republi ...
of genre scenes, active for over a decade in Rome, where his nickname was Il Bamboccio. Artists working in his style, who often painted just such scenes of everyday life as Pliny lists, became known as the
Bamboccianti
The ''Bamboccianti'' were Genre works, genre painters active in Rome from about 1625 until the end of the seventeenth century. Most were Netherlands, Dutch and Flemings, Flemish artists who brought existing traditions of depicting peasant subject ...
, painters in Bamboccio's manner. Peiraikos is often mentioned in the controversies over the Bamboccianti, for example by
Salvator Rosa
Salvator Rosa (1615 –1673) is best known today as an Italian Baroque painter, whose romanticized landscapes and history paintings, often set in dark and untamed nature, exerted considerable influence from the 17th century into the early 19th ...
in his ''Satires'', and later by the Dutch biographer of artists,
Samuel Dirksz van Hoogstraten
Samuel Dirksz van Hoogstraten (2 August 1627, in Dordrecht – 19 October 1678, in Dordrecht) was a Dutch painter of the Golden Age, who was also a poet and author on art theory.
Biography
Samuel Dirksz van Hoogstraten trained first with his fat ...
in his ''Inleyding tot de Hooge Schoole der Schilderkonst'' (''Introduction to the Academy of Painting''),
Rotterdam
Rotterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Rotte'') is the second largest city and municipality in the Netherlands. It is in the province of South Holland, part of the North Sea mouth of the Rhine–Meuse–Scheldt delta, via the ''"N ...
1678. As genre painting became an important element of Dutch Golden Age painting, Peiraikos was used to provide classical precedent for such work, in the relatively few discussions of the appropriateness of such art by
Karel van Mander
Karel van Mander (I) or Carel van Mander I (May 1548 – 2 September 1606) was a Flemish painter, poet, art historian and art theoretician, who established himself in the Dutch Republic in the latter part of his life. He is mainly remembe ...
in his ''
Schilder-boeck
or is a book written by the Flemish writer and painter Karel van Mander first published in 1604 in Haarlem in the Dutch Republic, where van Mander resided. The book is written in 17th-century Dutch and its title is commonly translated into Engl ...
'' (1604) and
Arnold Houbraken
Arnold Houbraken (28 March 1660 – 14 October 1719) was a Dutch painter and writer from Dordrecht, now remembered mainly as a biographer of Dutch Golden Age painters.
Life
Houbraken was sent first to learn ''threadtwisting'' (Twyndraat) fr ...
in his ''
The Great Theatre of Dutch Painters
''The Great Theatre of Dutch Painters and Paintresses'', or ''De groote schouburgh der Nederlantsche konstschilders en schilderessen'', as it was originally known in Dutch, is a series of artist biographies with engraved portraits written by the 1 ...
'' (1718–1719). Having originally been often rather cheap, by the late 17th century the best Dutch genre scenes became sought after by collectors across Europe at very high prices, a development following Pliny's account of Peiraikos that was bemoaned by
Lessing in his ''Laocoon'' (1763), mentioning Dutch painting specifically.
![Diego Velazquez - An Old Woman Cooking Eggs - Google Art Project](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/13/Diego_Velazquez_-_An_Old_Woman_Cooking_Eggs_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg)
In Spain, where ''
bodegones'' or genre tavern scenes had become popular, Peiraikos was referred to by
Francisco Pacheco
Francisco Pacheco del Río (bap. 3 November 1564 – 27 November 1644) was a Spanish painter, best known as the teacher and father-in-law of Diego Velázquez and Alonzo Cano, and for his textbook on painting, entitled ''Art of Painting'', ...
and later
Antonio Palomino
Acislo Antonio Palomino de Castro y Velasco (165513 April 1726) was a Spanish painter of the Baroque period, and a writer on art, author of ''El Museo pictórico y escala óptica'', which contains a large amount of important biographical mate ...
in the same way, with Palomino comparing
Velasquez to him. A reference by the
Jesuit
, image = Ihs-logo.svg
, image_size = 175px
, caption = ChristogramOfficial seal of the Jesuits
, abbreviation = SJ
, nickname = Jesuits
, formation =
, founders ...
writer
Baltasar Gracián
Baltasar Gracián y Morales, S.J. (; 8 January 16016 December 1658), better known as Baltasar Gracián, was a Spanish Jesuit and baroque prose writer and philosopher. He was born in Belmonte, near Calatayud (Aragón). His writings were lauded ...
, comparing Peiraikos to an unnamed contemporary painter also seems to refer to Velasquez. In Italy he is mentioned in passing by Cardinal
Gabriele Paleotti
Gabriele Paleotti (4 October 1522 – 22 July 1597) was an Italian cardinal and Archbishop of Bologna. He was a significant figure in, and source about, the later sessions of the Council of Trent, and much later a candidate for the papacy in 1590 ...
, whose ''De sacris et profanis imaginibus'' (1582, "Discourse on Sacred and Profane Images") was one of the treatises setting out the
Counter-Reformation
The Counter-Reformation (), also called the Catholic Reformation () or the Catholic Revival, was the period of Catholic resurgence that was initiated in response to the Protestant Reformation. It began with the Council of Trent (1545–1563) a ...
church's views on the proper role and content of art.
Giovanni Battista Agucchi, the secretary of Cardinal
Odoardo Farnese
Odoardo Farnese (28 April 1612 – 11 September 1646), also known as Odoardo I Farnese to distinguish him from his grandson Odoardo II Farnese, was Duke of Parma, Piacenza and Castro from 1622 to 1646.
Biography
Odoardo was the eldest legit ...
and a mover and shaker in the Roman art scene, called
Jacopo Bassano
Jacopo Bassano (c. 1510 – 14 February 1592), known also as Jacopo dal Ponte, was an Italian painter who was born and died in Bassano del Grappa near Venice, and took the village as his surname. Trained in the workshop of his father, Francesco t ...
the modern Peiraikos, contrasting the pair to
Caravaggio
Michelangelo Merisi (Michele Angelo Merigi or Amerighi) da Caravaggio, known as simply Caravaggio (, , ; 29 September 1571 – 18 July 1610), was an Italian painter active in Rome for most of his artistic life. During the final four years of hi ...
and
Demetrios of Alopeka, who sculpted "warts and all" portraits of important figures. In France,
André Félibien
André Félibien (May 161911 June 1695), ''sieur des Avaux et de Javercy'', was a French chronicler of the arts and official court historian to Louis XIV of France.
Biography
Félibien was born at Chartres. At the age of fourteen he went to Pa ...
was an influential codifier of the theory of the
hierarchy of genres
A hierarchy of genres is any formalization which ranks different genres in an art form in terms of their prestige and cultural value.
In literature, the epic was considered the highest form, for the reason expressed by Samuel Johns ...
in art, and cited Pliny on Peiraikos, assuming the disapproval of his predecessor.
A passage in the diary of
Paul Klee
Paul Klee (; 18 December 1879 – 29 June 1940) was a Swiss-born German artist. His highly individual style was influenced by movements in art that included expressionism, cubism, and surrealism. Klee was a natural draftsman who experimented wi ...
meditates on Peiraikos as an "artist-martyr".
In literature,
Rabelais in ''
Gargantua and Pantagruel
''The Life of Gargantua and of Pantagruel'' (french: La vie de Gargantua et de Pantagruel) is a pentalogy of novels written in the 16th century by François Rabelais, telling the adventures of two giants, Gargantua ( , ) and his son Pantagruel ...
'' (Prologue, Book V, c. 1564) compares himself to Peiraikos as a specialist in low subjects: "... and yet for Aesop a Place was found, and the Office of Mythologist; in like manner, inasmuch as I do not aspire to a higher Degree, I pray that they may not disdain to receive me in the Office of small Riparographer and Follower of Piraeicus" (or "Puny Riparographer, or Riffraff-scribler of the Sect of Pyrricus" as his translator
Peter Motteux
Peter Anthony Motteux (born Pierre Antoine Motteux ; 25 February 1663 – 18 February 1718) was a French-born English author, playwright, and translator. Motteux was a significant figure in the evolution of English journalism in his era, as the ...
put it in 1694).
Rhyparographer
The term used by Pliny has been anglicized as "rhyparographer", "A painter of low or mean subjects", which the ''
OED
The ''Oxford English Dictionary'' (''OED'') is the first and foundational historical dictionary of the English language, published by Oxford University Press (OUP). It traces the historical development of the English language, providing a co ...
'' first records in 1656, with "rhyparography" in 1678.
OED
The ''Oxford English Dictionary'' (''OED'') is the first and foundational historical dictionary of the English language, published by Oxford University Press (OUP). It traces the historical development of the English language, providing a co ...
, "Rhyparographer", "Rhyparography"
Notes
References
*Courtwright, Nicola, ''Origins and Meanings of Rembrandt's Late Drawing Style'', ''
The Art Bulletin
The College Art Association of America (CAA) is the principal organization in the United States for professionals in the visual arts, from students to art historians to emeritus faculty. Founded in 1911, it "promotes these arts and their understa ...
'', Vol. 78, No. 3 (Sep., 1996), pp. 485–510,
JSTOR*Hénin, Emmanuelle, ''Ut pictura theatrum: théâtre et peinture de la Renaissance italienne au classicisme français'' (in French), 2003, Librairie Droz, , 9782600008259
google books*Hobey-Hamsher, C., "Peiraikos." Grove Art Online,
Oxford Art Online
Oxford Art Online is an Oxford University Press online gateway into art research, which was launched in 2008. It provides access to several online art reference works, including Grove Art Online (originally published in 1996 in a print version, ''T ...
, Oxford University Press, accessed February 22, 2013
subscriber link*Kettering. Alison M., ''Men at Work in Dutch Art, or Keeping One's Nose to the Grindstone'', ''
The Art Bulletin
The College Art Association of America (CAA) is the principal organization in the United States for professionals in the visual arts, from students to art historians to emeritus faculty. Founded in 1911, it "promotes these arts and their understa ...
'', Vol. 89, No. 4 (Dec., 2007), pp. 694–714
JSTOR*Kwak, Zoran, "Taste the Fare and Chew it with Your Eyes’: A Painting by Pieter Pietersz and the Amusing Deceit in Sixteenth- and Seventeenth-Century Dutch and Flemish Kitchen Scenes", in ''On the Edge of Truth and Honesty: Principles and Strategies of Fraud and Deceit in the Early Modern Period'', edited by Toon van Houdt and others, BRILL, 2002, , 9789004125728
google books*Levine, David A., ''The Roman Limekilns of the Bamboccianti'', ''
The Art Bulletin
The College Art Association of America (CAA) is the principal organization in the United States for professionals in the visual arts, from students to art historians to emeritus faculty. Founded in 1911, it "promotes these arts and their understa ...
'', Vol. 70, No. 4 (Dec., 1988), pp. 569–589
JSTOR*"Pliny"
''The elder Pliny's chapters on the history of art'' ed. K. Jex-Blake and others, digitized edition of 1896 book from Mamillan & Co. at archive.org
*Plommer, Hugh, "Campanian Still-Life Paintings", review of ''Les natures mortes campaniennes'' by Jean-Michel Croisille, ''
The Classical Review
''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the m ...
'', New Series, Vol. 17, No. 1 (Mar., 1967), pp. 98–99, Cambridge University Press on behalf of The Classical Association
JSTOR* Saporta, Lawrence L., ''Velázquez: The Spanish Style and the Art of Devotion'', dissertation,
Bryn Mawr College
Bryn Mawr College ( ; Welsh: ) is a women's liberal arts college in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania. Founded as a Quaker institution in 1885, Bryn Mawr is one of the Seven Sister colleges, a group of elite, historically women's colleges in the United St ...
, ProQuest, 2009, , 9781109124323
google books*Sohm, Philip, ''Caravaggio's Deaths'', The Art Bulletin, Vol. 84, No. 3 (Sep., 2002), pp. 449–468
JSTOR*Sullivan, Margaret A., ''Aertsen's Kitchen and Market Scenes: Audience and Innovation in Northern Art'', The Art Bulletin, Vol. 81, No. 2 (Jun., 1999), pp. 236–266
JSTOR
{{Authority control
Ancient Greek painters