The Visit 

Jacob Ochtervelt painted "The Visit" in the Dutch Republic, using oil paints and brushes, materials that were by then standardized, and part of an art market well integrated with capitalist culture. Note how the artist has lavished attention on the expensive fabrics in the image. Consider the white satin skirt of the woman’s dress. Ochtervelt has built this up through careful layers of pigment, a masterclass in rendering the material qualities of drape, sheen, and texture. But it is more than just technical virtuosity. The painting serves as a document of the labor invested in the production of clothing. From the cultivation of flax for linen, to the rearing of silk worms, the spinning of thread, the dyeing and weaving of fabric, and the tailoring of the dress itself, all of this is represented here, through the material itself. The same can be said of the dog, meticulously bred to be a fashionable lapdog. In short, “The Visit” is a painting about the value, literally made manifest, that we attach to material things.