A Boy with a Dog (Allegory of "Taste") by Bernardo Eberhart Keilhau

A Boy with a Dog (Allegory of "Taste") 1651 - 1654

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oil-paint

portrait

allegory

baroque

oil-paint

oil painting

genre-painting

history-painting

Dimensions 63.5 cm (height) x 47.5 cm (width) (Netto)

Bernardo Keilhau painted "A Boy with a Dog (Allegory of "Taste") with oil on canvas. The composition is anchored by the figures, with a warm palette giving the scene an inviting yet complex feel. Note the way the artist has used light to give the painting its formal structure, the light illuminates both the boy's face and the scattered cheese on the table, drawing our eyes to the implied sensation of taste. This painting is not just a simple genre scene; it's an allegory. The "Allegory of Taste" suggests a deeper exploration of perception. Keilhau’s work engages with how we experience the world through our senses, and how these experiences shape our understanding. By using symbolic elements, the artist invites us to reflect on the nature of sensory perception and its role in our lives. It invites us to question what constitutes ‘taste,’ both literally and figuratively. Is it merely sensory, or is it intertwined with cultural and personal values?

Comments

statensmuseumforkunst over 1 year ago

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At first glance, this looks like a typical seventeenth-century everyday scene featuring children at play. However, this painting is actually an allegory, a visualisation of an abstract concept. In this case we are looking at an allegory of the sense of taste, part of a series featuring all five senses. The painting was presumably created after Keilhau had set himself up as an artist in Rome in 1656, where he became known under the name of Monsú Bernardo. The road that led him there had been long and winding, taking Keilhau to Rembrandt’s workshop and to Hendrick Uylenburgh’s academy of painting in Amsterdam. Keilhau grew up in Kronborg Castle in Elsinore, where his mother was a housekeeper to the court and his father, Caspar Kegelhoff, was court artist to Christian IV and Frederik III.