A Painting by Any Other Name

How much does the title of an artwork affect how we respond to it? It is an interesting question, especially because until the first salon exhibits started under King Louis XIV in 1667 at the French Royal Academy, there wasn’t a tradition of artist’s giving their work a title.  Sometimes a title was given and more often than not works were left untitled. There wasn’t a need as paintings and sculptures were commissioned by patrons who requested a specific theme and no one envisioned either museums or future historians discussing each work. 

Gerard ter Borch, Parental Admonition, 1654-55 (Rijksmuseum)

In fact most famous paintings created before the 18th century were actually named by art historians or museum curators in the 19th century for the purpose of research or cataloguing work.  Even in the 17th century when art was painted for the general art market and galleries, the modern idea of giving all works of art a title wasn’t in place yet.  We will look at three examples, all from Dutch 17th century art, a time when many “genre” paintings or scenes of everyday life were created.

The painting above, ter Borch’s Parental Admonition is a good example of a wrongly titled painting.  It was originally incorrectly interpreted as a set of parents scolding their young daughter who bows her head shamefully.  However upon closer examination it was determined to be a scene at a brothel.  Brothel scenes and allegories of sin were a popular theme in the 17th century Netherlands.  Another example of a painting given an incorrect title can be seen below in ter Borch’s contemporary, Samuel van Hoogstraten The Slippers.  

Samuel van Hoogstraten, The Slippers, 1654-62 (Louvre)

We have on the surface a quiet interior setting without figures with two slippers in the foreground.  On closer examination we have before us another allegory of lust and temptation.  The slippers are not a set, there is one man’s and one woman’s.  A broom in the foreground has been left to the side as if to suggest that the woman who was cleaning (the mistress of the house or maybe a maidservant) and the master of the house have snuck into the bedroom together.  The painting within the painting, the Father Admonishing his Daughter by Netscher was a variation of the above work by Gerard Ter Borch. The contemporary viewer would have taken note of the extinguished candle and immediately understood what was going on.

 

Jan Steen, The Doctor’s Visit, 1658-62, private collection

The last painting we will look at is The Doctor’s Visit by Jan Steen, an artist who did several variations on this theme.  Paintings of young women who were visited by doctors were often titled either “The Doctor’s Visit” or “The Lovesick Woman” but more accurately these are an allegory of sin or lust.  The “lovesickness” in question is usually pregnancy outside of marriage.  Many symbols in these paintings refer to love and lust and again the scene would have been instantly recognizable to the contemporary Dutch viewer.

Titles are something all viewers should carefully consider, who exactly gave a work of art its title?  When it was the artist a whole other level of information is suggested to the viewer and when it was a historian sometimes that level of information is missing or a new subject is implied.  This is an interesting subject area and one I will come back to.

Three Reasons To Get An Oil Change

The lifespan of a car takes into application several factors; an important agency getting maintenance. Millions of humans carelessness their cars and if they charge it most, it can al of a sudden die. This can appear to old cars as able-bodied as new cars, which is why it's important to accumulate up with appointed maintenance. It's important to accumulate up with things like aqueous changes, filters, and chiral casework or a car can breach down, banishment the buyer to pay for cher aliment or backup parts. It's important to agenda an oil change based on the architect suggestion, which on boilerplate is every six months or 3,000 miles; this helps to ensure your car is active able-bodied and the engine is not chock-full with gunk. Consider these three affidavit why you should get your oil changed.

Longevity - If you're searching to accumulate your car for a continued time, you'll wish to get this done often. Oil changes are not expensive, and the account includes clarify backup and beginning oil that will accumulate the engine anointed and assuming optimally. You can do it yourself, or for a baby price, you can appointment a quick bless and accept a artisan do it for you. One of the allowances to accepting an oil change performed by a able is that they actuate of the old oil and generally analysis added fluids as a courtesy. A car with consistently afflicted oil will run far best than added cars that don't get approved care.

Carrion - You may accept apparent the commercials about engine sludge, but if you absent them, you ability not apperceive that bedraggled oil clogs and charcoal engine parts. If an engine builds up acidity, it causes irreversible accident to the centralized affective parts. If an engine is damaged, backup or adjustment will be bare and the costs are absolutely college than a simple oil change.

Accent - If you're planning a continued alley cruise or you're traveling through aerial terrain, you'll charge all the horse ability and engine accomplishment that you can get. If you accept consistently afflicted oil, you'll acquisition that your car will run just fine, but if you've alone the appointed maintenance, you'll acquisition that the car will accept a harder time affective up hills and the engine could overheat. You don't wish to could cause your engine added accent in these situations, abnormally if it is snowing or aqueous heavily.

The aloft are just three affidavit to get your oil afflicted regularly. Approved oil changes are just one of abounding all-important bactericide aliment routines you should agenda for your vehicle. You'll acquisition that you get accord of apperception if your car is appropriately cared for. Don't let yourself overlook to change the oil in your vehicle, as it is one of the easiest things you can do to access the activity of your car. If you are borderline how generally you should change your oil, argue your owner's manual. Every car is different, so blockage the chiral is the easiest way to acquisition this information.

How to Break in Your New Car

So you accept spent time scouring the internet aggravating to acquisition the best car accommodation ante and your dream car. Accept you anytime anticipation about what you will do with your car already you access your car accommodation and go drive the car off the lot? Many humans are generally afraid to drive their new car about because they wish to advance the just off the lot attending and smells that it is supplied with. However, it is inevitable, you will accept to drive your new car about and it will apparently get some abrasion and tear. Believe it or not there are a few able means to breach in your new car. This commodity will yield a attending at some of those techniques to accomplish abiding that you accumulate your car active in the best way possible.

Think that stop and go cartage can be bad for your new engine? Think again. The abridgement of connected acceleration is in fact acceptable for a new engine. Why? It in fact helps the agent rings to brighten the butt walls properly. You alone charge to anguish about this for the aboriginal few thousand afar and again you can go aback to the cruise ascendancy life.

Following with the antecedent statement, you aswell do not wish to drive your new car about like a NASCAR disciplinarian antagonism for their activity either. You wish to accumulate your bearings alive appropriately so it is recommended that for at atomic the aboriginal one thousand afar you drive like a accustomed person. You can consistently chase something abroad if you absolutely accept the charge for speed.

We all apperceive that it is important to change the oil every three thousand miles, but accept you heard that you should change the oil aural the aboriginal 20 afar of you active off the lot? Sounds crazy right? Well, not really. It is appropriate that you change the oil adequately bound so that you can rid your car from any bits that ability accept collapsed off the new engine. Aswell during the process, there is no acumen to use the constructed oil. Just use the approved oil and get your car bankrupt out and again you can alpha your accepted oil changes with the constructed oil.

Brakes can be a actual acute aspect to your car, yet there is not a set way to breach in your brakes. This is affectionate of a accessible accommodation maker. You of advance do not wish to bang your break actual harder consistently if you can abstain it. By absorption on approved breaking techniques, your car should be fine.

Practise Methods and Approaches for Students of Musical Instruments

Many of us wanting to learn an instrument will initially want to play certain songs or pieces by our favourite bands or musicians. This is great for inspiration and will offer a goal, and in exchange for our efforts in practising on the instrument the goal will be realised. The journey from goal to achievement will depend on many factors, but the ones we are interested in here are the best methods for practise.

Over many years I have bought countless books and materials hoping to find new and different approaches to learning. While some of the techniques in these books will have contributed to my development some may have been far less successful.

After studying these materials one of the most valuable learning tools I have adopted is the implementation of repeating passages or sections of music to degrees that may seem unnecessary. So instead of practising a passage for example 10 times, it would not be unreasonable to practise it 100 times although you may feel you have already mastered the passage after 10 repeats. It is also important to note that these repeated passages should be untainted in terms of bad execution of the notes involved. A poorly performed passage should not be considered a repeated passage in this context.

The number of times you attempt a passage or piece of music is not the only important factor in learning it, the speed at which it is practised and how comfortable it is to play will also affect your success. As mentioned previously a passage played badly is not a passage worth counting so one way to improve the number of times a passage can be played without error is to bring the tempo down. I believe this is one of the most crucial aspects to learning a musical instrument, to be comfortable to play the music at every tempo below the one you are aiming for.

Here is an idea of how to tackle a new section of music: Start by playing the passage at a speed where you can play all the notes perfectly however slow this may seem. At this tempo play the passage 100 times. If you played the passage 100 times without error, try increasing the tempo by 5 beats per minute and see if you can play another 100 without error. If this increased tempo causes problems try stepping down the tempo to only 2 beats per minute faster than the original any repeat the process. With this method there is quite a high demand for discipline and dedication in order to stay on track but the outcome can be worth it.

A good test to see if the method is working is to try the passage or piece of music as soon as you start playing your instrument the next day. You may feel slightly more comfortable with the notes or you may decide it is just as hard. It is important to remember that it may take a lot of time to see any improvement so don't be put off if the method does not yield results straight away.

With many students of an instrument, after a certain period of development they will fall into a state where they no longer need to learn anything new and will just play the same lick or song over and over again, for a period of years sometimes. They will no doubt become very comfortable playing these licks and songs and I believe this principle can be applied to learning new material only that more work is needed to be put in.