Visual Analysis of The Antique Pottery Painter: Sculpturae vitam insufflat pictura by Jean-Leon Gerome
The Antique Pottery Painter: Sculpturae vitam insufflat pictura by Jean-Leon Gerome is an oil painting on canvas. This European painting was painted in 1893. The dimensions are 50.1 x 68.8 cm. The highly detailed painting is divided into various grounds like back, middle and foreground. Life and art are the central themes of the painting, with some depiction of Orientalism. However, the question is, why would Gerome have combined these three themes of Orient, art and life in one painting and how they are connected to each other?
The smoothly brushed painting depicts a scene of a pottery shop. The female figure is sitting cross-legged on a wooden stool in the middle ground of the left side of the painting. The figure is wearing a flowy cream-coloured dress. The colour of the pottery painter’s skin is paler than the colour of her dress with a black bob haircut. The light is falling onto her from the top left side, creating a sense of chiaroscuro. The light depicts the painter, stool, table, box and red frame as the focus of the painting. The background is darker than the middle and foreground. There is light coming from the outside in the right corner.
The female painter is painting the pottery. The pottery depicts female figures standing in the same pose. The tilted head figures have their left hand at the back, and the right hand is holding a hoop. Their hoops are positioned in between their heads. One foot is elevated from the ground, and the other toe touches the ground barely. The figures are painted in different colours like turquoise, black, yellow, red and blue, wearing the same flowy dresses.
She is painting the pottery in turquoise colour by holding the brush with her right hand and the pottery with her left hand. Beside her, there is a table the same size as the wooden stool that has six painting containers. The three legs of the table are shaped like the leg of an animal. In the foreground, beside the triangular table, there is an open wooden box containing three face masks. Outside the box, there is a signature of the painter in black, which says J.L.GEROME. These open-mouthed three masks have a realistic look on their faces. Out of these three, the white mask looks like it has been painted just now because the brush that is on the table has white paint. The white paint covers the face but not the ears. The red oval-shaped frame has an eye with leaves painted at the bottom placed beside the wooden box. This red frame is standing with the support of the rectangular table from the back. The wooden table has an ‘X’ shaped carving band around the table with carved wooden legs. The table has seven coloured potteries: six are placed in a sequence along the edge of the table, and the seventh is in the middle facing the opposite direction. Five potteries are yet to be painted. They are placed in different directions at the other end of the table opposite the coloured potteries. The one end of the table that is closer to the female figure has a blue container of paint, the lid of the orange paint container and a white rag with a brush on top.
This table has a rug underneath with geometrical patterns. The yellow base rug has contrasting colours of red and blue. Edges of the rug have a horizontal band around and intersect in the middle. The first part of the rug has a wheel in blue surrounded by a red circle with a medallion in the centre. The second part has an octagon in the contrasting colours of red and blue. In the background, there is a wooden structure that has two shelves. The shelves have various potteries different than the ones that are on the table. There are two paintings, one on each shelf and face masks.
The right side of the painting depicts a scene of the outside world. The architectural elements present a scene of the downtown city area. Buildings are shaped as if they are all connected with each other. Two storeys of the underdeveloped buildings are depicted with four grill windows on them. There are three figures standing; one of them is a shopkeeper, and the other two are customers. The shopkeeper, who is wearing a blue maxi, is standing on a raised platform. The customers are wearing turquoise and white clothing. The female figure who is wearing white has her head covered with a white shawl. The other customer is wearing turquoise-coloured clothing and has her face covered with a turquoise veil. The veiled figure is also wearing a beige triangular-shaped hat on her head. It looks like they are engaged in a conversation about the pottery that the veiled figure is holding. Various pottery figures are also presented in front of customers.
Both soft and hard furniture surrounded by the female potter is painted diagonally. The rug, tabletop and wooden stool create imaginary orthogonal lines that lead towards the vanishing point, which is on the horizon line. The diagonal lines lead towards the turquoise pottery the painter is holding. The furniture and the female potter overlaps. Orthogonal lines and overlapping creates three-dimensionalities in the painting.
The painter is staring at the pottery in her hand as if she is breathing life into the sculpture. Painting the sculptures in this painting is a form of making them alive. Therefore, if the ancient potter painter is making them alive by painting them, it makes this potter a creator. Her pale skin and slightly pink face seem like she is turning froze because she is breathing into the sculptures to make them alive.
The painting might be a depiction of a shop in the Orient. The veiled customer, the lady who is wearing a shawl, buildings in the back with mashrabiya type of grill windows, two veiled figures in the back and the male figure wearing a keffiyeh in the background shelf are the examples of Oriental tradition. Orientalism deals with the interplay of life and art.
