Tommy C's Blog

I always thought Constable was for Grandparent's dinner mats - until I saw one of the large pieces, and that incredible feeling of immersion in a lovely, rich, long-lost English countryside . . . I always thought Warhol was a trendy, posing joker - until I came face to face with his work's subtle, complex melancholy . . . I always thought sculpture was pretty much a waste of time, until I saw two of Rodin's lovers emerge from rock to wrap around each other, and then melt back into the stone they sprang from, intertwined and inseparable . . .

On the other hand, when I saw the far more minor and apparently quite patchy artist Godfried Schalcken's painting 'A useless moral lesson' in the Mauritshuis, I instantly knew exactly what I liked about the painting. Without the need for ellipsis, without enigma. It made me laugh.

I should have taken some notes, because the photo (click to enlarge) came out so badly many details are lost, and I can't remember them. What's the snake-like thing wrapped around that big pillar? Is that a third person at the back left, waiting in the shadows? Waiting for her, or agreeing with the old lecturing fool? Where are the pair, what's in the background?

On the other hand, you can at least almost make out all the key details. A young, beautiful woman. Her hands are poised on a small, unopened box, waiting on a soft cushion for her fingers to unlock. A gnarled, aging man with a crooked back. He's failing to provide her with a lesson, his finger wagging uselessly alone in the air. What strange, intriguing instruments accompany his instruction: a book and a hammer? Or is it a wooden peg? A walking stick? Whatever it is - the title makes the appropriate mockery, the contrast between the pair leaves no questions.

And so she stares out from the picture, barely aware of his unwanted speech, out past the smiles which interest her not, that the centuries of on-lookers have brought, while the camera leaves one thing completely uncaptured: she does so with such a spark in her eye.