As is often the case in Bloch\u2019s work, knives and forks are brandished around freely. This\u00a0 is one of Bloch\u2019s most popular genre pictures and is is an intensified version of a painting by one of Bloch\u2019s major predecessors, Wilhelm Marstrand (1810-1873);\u00a0 his Italian Osteria Scene from 1848 (Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek).<\/p>\n
Bloch’s ability to depict objects, details, and clothes with realism is striking.\u00a0 The women are also seducing the viewer however,\u00a0 and the phallic decanter to the left may be close to an inviting mouth but is equally \u2013 and unpleasantly \u2013 close to a knife and a fork with only two large prongs considerably more pointy than those of the young man\u2019s fork.<\/p>\n
The genre pictures were a break from the many commissions from the Danish Establishment. Friars with toothache, monks plucking chickens, coarse fishwives, and children hunting innocent ducks were among his favourite subjects. These pictures were usually very amusing, but also often rather strange and very much open to interpretation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
As is often the case in Bloch\u2019s work, knives and forks are brandished around freely. This\u00a0 is one of Bloch\u2019s most popular genre pictures and is is an intensified version of a painting by one of Bloch\u2019s major predecessors, Wilhelm Marstrand (1810-1873);\u00a0 his Italian Osteria Scene from 1848 (Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek). Bloch’s ability to depict … Continue reading In a Roman Osteria<\/span>