The BEDROOM & the PROFUNDITY of Pieter De Hooch: Feat. Some Aristotle, Arendt, Jung, Seneca, & Bible
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- Опубліковано 9 вер 2021
- This video went out of control, because apparently I'm unable to control myself. On the positive side, this may be my most layered piece of writing yet, containing the kernels of what I believe about everything. There is plenty of meaning playing out in the open for everyone to see, but the deeper meanings often like to hide out of sight in the shadows and bushes; some camouflage themselves with other pieces of scenery. Keep your eyes peeled for them.
We’ll touch on a ton of topics like: Should we focus on death or on life? What is the nature of the space which we call a ‘bedroom?’ I’ll broadly scan the body of work by Dutch Golden Age artist Pieter De Hooch (1629-1684). Most all of the paintings in the video, unless otherwise indicated, are by De Hooch . Hopefully, you’ll be able to recognize his distinctive style after watching this video.
We’ll attempt to get inside de Hooch’s mind, discussing the epistemology of ‘seeing’: how light and shadow reveal truth and tell stories and how light creates value. There is a relationship between our subjective feeling and the motion of the planets.
Finally, we’ll ask what the meaning of life is. If an artist was willing to put so much time and effort-HOURS of meticulous labor-into painting scenes like these, and if people were willing to pay to have paintings like these, it must give us a clue as to what these people found meaningful. The meaning of life is to create and to take action. Reason and verbal articulation alone are insufficient to discover what life is. Only when we take action can we truly ‘see’ and understand in the first place.
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I feel like I could listen to you talk about semi obscure European artists for hours
Amazing video as ever
Thanks! Haha
They're hardly obscure, compadre. They're world famous! 🤔( Green Fire, UK ) 🌈🦉
I saw the de hooch paintings, including the back yard one, and immediately loved them- and never forgot- but I could never articulate why... I so enjoyed this vid, thank you
You’re welcome!
Amazing video, thank you!
Since you have a lot planned, please take care of yourself to ensure you don't burn out.
As a UA-camr, I learnt this the hard way 😅
Thank you my friend! It can definitely be difficult to balance work and life sometimes, but I will do my best. Thanks for looking out for me!
I stumbled upon your channel when I was watching videos about Lord of the Rings. I now subscribe. I am a philosophy novice, but my daughter majored in it in college. Your videos allow to bridge my mundane mindset with the world of her interest. Thank you for the inspiration to connect with a new world to me.
You are very welcome. Thanks for being along on the journey!
This is so sweet 🥹
This channel deserves so much. Thank you, my friend, for all you have done thus far.
You’re welcome!
These videos absolutely make my day, and this channel deserves so much more. True quality content.
I’m glad! Thank you so much.
Never before have I actually thought about the art in my bedroom, a blue glass cross and a Klimt i've had since I was 12. Excuse me while I try and find out what drew me those pieces...
De Hooch's works have such excellent composition and perspective. Your works mirror this. Thank you for shining a light today.
You’re welcome!
I know nothing about art and sadly had little interest in it. But, this video is art. You help people like me to see what these paintings are conveying. So, folks **** WATCH THE ADS***. Support the artist. And spread the word. Thank you.
I used to be the same way. It’s a pleasure to help other people see things that you yourself have come to see. And I always appreciate the support!
Phenomenal video. A great day when you upload. You give people reason to question the everyday, and maybe look deeper than surface value.
Excited for the future content! Whatever you enjoy creating, people will enjoy with you. Do what’s sparking your mind, I’ll continue to absorb it all.
Thanks for the incredibly kind words, and thanks for sticking with me! This is what keeps me going.
Thank you for this authentic, insightful and genuinely valuable exploration of light and intimiacy in De Hooch -and art more broadly. There were multiple places in this video where I had tears in my eyes, your analysis in concert with the specific examples you chose was just perfect. I'm an art teacher, and my father is a painter. Watching this video, my first feeling was "Oh my goodness, this is at once remarkably reverent and remarkably lucid. My dad has to see this!!" Watching this instalment I had the wonderful and rare experience of learning so much while also feeling a deep resonance with what I already held deeply important and meaningful. It was like a long conversation with an old friend. Thank you for your beautiful explorations of meaning and the many ways we manifest it.
i love how you pronounce the Dutch painters names. as a Dutch person my self, I've always been interested with pronunciation of my language by people who don't speak it them selfs.
I do my best! Dutch is a difficult language, but one of my favorites. I’d love to be able to speak it someday.
Hij doet het best goed inderdaad. Zeer veel beter dan andere Amerikanen.
@@EmpireoftheMind Dutch indeed is pretty rough, especially the g and sch sounds can be quite tough! But I'm sure you'll master it one day! keep it up, I'm rooting for ya
@@poepertist dankjewel
Quite astonishing stuff, there is so much to see in these paintings, thank you for pointing it out.
You’re welcome! It’s amazing how much great artists are able to achieve.
Lovely video, now I want to buy a painting and put it in my room so it makes me feel better.
Thanks! Everyone should do that :)
Thank you for this excellent analysis and exploration of thought. This is excellent! This is the type of deep, academic, and philosophical thinking that is completely missing from American dialogue and conversation. It is so good to see and hear these essays because it gives me great hope that we can, one day, overcome the commercialization of the modern psyche and truly recognize the value of being human beyond just being the consumer of petty commodities.
Much of what humans are, and can be, is free and available to us every day. It amazes me how consumed, and self-consumed in our materialistic obsessions we still remain. You are a pioneer in the rediscovery of the true HUMAN soul...thank you again for your content and keep up the good work. Looking forward to those Kubrick essays.
And this is an excellent comment
thank you very much for your poignant intro to PdH. Can't recall having ever seen/noticed his paintings, thus i enjoyed VERY much this video and quotes. Much appreciated. Well done indeed, once again. 🙏🏼 🌷
Great video as usual. I always look forward to new content from your channel. Thanks again my friend
You’re welcome! And thanks for being on this journey with me.
Once again, you’re amazing bro, thanks for this amazing video essay. Your final words were really well said and the Seneca quote was amazing because it was a point I was touching on just earlier today. My lady and I see our friends really down after the lockdowns and other repressive measures, and my point was essentially that we have a choice to either let ourselves slip into the same state, or take action, use our bodies, exercise and feel great. I was wondering, where did you learn such insightful commentary on painting? It’s always a pleasure to hear your perspective! Lastly, I’m really looking forward to your future projects and is your writing available in the public domain?
You’re too kind, my friend. Thank you! You are absolutely right about taking action.
Honestly, I have no idea how I learned to analyze paintings. I just try to articulate what I feel, ask good questions, and say true things. I think a lot of it has to do with pattern recognition, and I’ve picked up on that through years of reading scholarship, criticism, and analyses of various things from film to music to literary texts. If you can learn it in one domain, it transfers well to others.
Currently, none of my writing is available anywhere. I’d be open to publishing in either digital or physical formats someday, if there’s a demand for it, but I’d also be open to making the UA-cam manuscripts available somewhere for free. If you have any suggestions on the best way to do that, let me know.
This made me feel good about my two wonderful sons!
I so enjoyed watching this - thank you.
Thank you for turning me on to de Hooch. His chops might not be up there with say, Vermeer, but indeed, the psychological impact is impressive. Um, which is the reason for art after all, yes? There is serenity there, yes from the use of light, but maybe it's the flurry of geometric forms, those doors and windows. But also the floor tiles, and rectangles all over the place. Sure they set perspective, but he handles them so deftly, so harmoniously, m mind just lest him in. In this one, the way the tiles in the room beyond the door are set on the diagonal...on edge say, but our room is straight, easy and orderly just softens my mind a bit. Like a resolving chord of dissonance (V7 chords include a tri-tone) to stable consonance.
Thank you my man for these inspiring videos.
In 11:20 ; the woman in the red dress has a face so realistic and so full of emotion that it felt like it was not a painting but a dream.
Ah, you're so sensitive to beauty. Thank you for sharing this with us.
You are very welcome, my friend. Thank you for always tuning in.
how good. nice video☘🌱🌹🙏beauty. Useful. Nice
Thanks!
Another amazing video. Learned a lot of artistic intricacy from your narrations. Thank you!
Thanks mate!
Excellent analysis, thanks - -
You’re welcome!
On your ending point, about Alice drowning - I think I heard a quote somewhere that depression is simply a failure to imagine.
I like that. Depression definitely seems like an inability to at least *believe* that the better circumstances we imagine for ourselves might be able to become true for us. But before we can believe, or have hope, we have to be able to envision.
@@EmpireoftheMind thanks for your response, love your content.
Great vid Empire.
Btw, Friedrich's "Wanderer..." is one of my fav's and is near me. thank u for ur great work. we appreciate you!
Thanks! It’s a truly profound piece of art. You are very welcome!
Beautiful.
Also, the message of this video is top notch.
Keep it up!
I’ll do my best!
amazing
I had never considered the “cons” of famous painters (for being too dark, too brooding, too bright). I can see your point. I personally love the dynamic between light and dark that Caravaggio uses, however. That being said, I’m not too thrilled with Hooch. His figures seem anatomically inaccurate and almost like cardboard cut-outs pasted on top his backdrops, despite the composition used and his mastery of light. Their faces, clothing, etc just seem off and the children resemble goblins a bit.
I definitely love Caravaggio as well! Indeed, I like all of the painters I mentioned. I just find it interesting how they evoke different experiences, and how those experiences seem to belong in different ‘spaces.’ Some are meant as aids to worship and invoke grandeur, drama, and majesty. Others are more private, personal statements or social commentary. De Hooch painted with houses and living spaces in mind, and I find that interesting. But to each their own!
I love your voice
Tour wonderful man!
You should check out Francois-Marius Granet’s paintings of monks. His use of light and shadow seems reminiscent of what you are talking about here.
I love your work. Another excellent piece.
What's the painting at 5:46? Your channel has given me a deeper appreciation of art. Never was my thing. Literature and philosophy.
Thank you my friend! That painting is, I believe, A Storm in the Rocky Mountains by Bierstadt.
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Storm_in_the_Rocky_Mountains,_Mt._Rosalie
My interpretation of the painting:
The painting is a contemporary depiction of the boy Jesus and the Virgin Mary. The halo around the boy signifying his divinity.
Him coming in while his hand is on the knocker might invoke Song of Solomon where the Beloved knocks on the door to enter.
The ball he carries in his left hand could be a symbol for the Globus Cruciger which is popularly depicted being held by the Infant Jesus of Prague.
Interesting interpretation. Hadn’t thought about that.
With how passionate you got at the end i have to ask, do you have kids? If it's too personal don't feel the need to say. The way you expressed the joy and fullness of being a parent seemed very personal
Not yet, but I think it’s only human nature to see parenthood as a beautiful thing and to find joy in being a parent, even if it’s an anticipated joy. I’ve also had many friends who are joyful parents; their contagious perspective has probably rubbed off on me :)
Great video. It's very interesting seeing how large and spacious the Dutch houses are. I myself prefer small (or limited?) dark places to great wide open places. I prefer a dark forest to a prairie (we have both here). Or a cave to a mountaintop. Memento mori never disturbs me. I don't know why exactly and I'm not sure whether it is healthy. I just wanted to tell you how those Dutch paintings evoke for me something very very old or far away. Somewhere in my mind, there lurks the memory of large open places. And there is something beautiful and livening about it. It is happiness and serenity, like the child in the painting. But it seems very far away. I'm writing a story exploring this right now. The difference between (in Jungian terms) extraverted percieving and introverted judging, openness and closure, mystery and knowledge, life and death, perhaps God and self. This video brings some needed light to the topic. Thanks, friend
Would also love to see a video on Alice...
I’m glad you shared this, my friend. The English side of me also wants a small cozy house; it may be the Dutch side of me that wants the cozy house to be on a hill with a wide view.
Your comment reminds me of Lewis’s Pilgrim’s Regress. We definitely need more stories exploring these things.
I would love to make a video on Alice. I definitely plan on incorporating a lot of Lewis Carrol into my series on Kubrick, but he deserves a stand-alone video for sure.
I guess now I ought to read pilgrims regress.
@@petermasri3266 You definitely should.
Great video! I really like the way of your work on the subject / object.
May you tell me who is the artist for the painting at 5.09min? Thank you in advance.
Thanks! The painting right at 5:09 is Greifswald in Moonlight by Caspar David Friedrich (really beautiful!), and the one a couple seconds later is by the same artist as well, and called The Dreamer (Ruins of the Oybin Monastery).
@@EmpireoftheMind Thank you!
Think you meant uninterested not disinterested. The latter means impartial.
I am a subscriber and am interested in keeping your standards high.
Another note, the child is holding a staff, increasing the similarities to paintings of saints. Typically their staff was symbolic of authority as a bishop, or when topped with a cross......martyrdom.
Whenever Pieter De Hooch is mentioned, this anecdote from Peter Ustinov always comes to mind - ua-cam.com/video/Bi1GXrLLHjs/v-deo.html ...
That’s funny! Thanks for sharing.
Kubrick's films you say? Oh yes please!
Heck yes.
have you ever read Lev Shestov if you like Kierkegaard you would love him
I feel certain that you've seen this, but in case you haven't, the next five-ten minutes in this conversation are germane to your aesthetic argument. The transcendent is within the particular, and the transcendence is what allows us to justify and rise above the suffering. I hope you are well, indeed. ua-cam.com/video/nlgG8C1GydA/v-deo.html
It’s been a while since I’ve seen it, but it’s always a pleasure to be reminded; thanks for sharing it!
Can you.. give us.. more.. dramatic.. Pauses..?
And more jewish ideas please. Not enough of those.