Existing comment:
The Clockmaker's Workshop
1610
After Jan van der Straet, called Stradanus
In Stradanus's Clockmaker's Workshop, several figures perform different steps in the clockmaking process. * The most prominent figure, whose delicate lace collar suggests that he is a master clockmaker, presents the fruits of his workshop's labor to the viewer, as if to a potential buyer. The painting documents the close relation between commerce and manufacture: behind him another clockmaker, likely a journeyman, inspects watches suspended from the wall. Another man reaches beyond the canvas to complete his task, implying the continued space of the workshop. This didactic painting and the poetic Spanish painting nearby both include representations of clocks, but they treat the technology differently, a testament to the versatility of the clock as a subject for artistic representation. |