Carl Bloch - In a Roman Osteria [1866]

Carl Bloch - In a Roman Osteria [1866], a photo by Gandalf's Gallery on Flickr.

As is often the case in Bloch’s work, knives and forks are brandished rather freely. Note in particular how the phallic decanter to the left may be close to an inviting mouth with slightly parted lips, but is equally, and unpleasantly, close to a knife and a fork with only two large prongs considerably more pointy than those of the young man’s fork.

Within Bloch’s body of work, the genre pictures constituted a break from the many commissions from the Danish Establishment. Friars with toothache, monks plucking chickens, coarse fishwives, and children hunting innocent ducks were among his favourite subjects. These pictures were usually very amusing, but also often rather strange and very much open to interpretation.

Carl Bloch - Samson and the Philistines [1863]

Carl Bloch - Samson and the Philistines [1863], a photo by Gandalf's Gallery on Flickr.

With Samson and the Philistines, painted in Rome in 1863, Bloch (1834 - 1890) entered the Danish art scene in earnest. With his virtuoso technique and narrative devices such as the way we as spectators are drawn into the scene, and the sheer concentrated action of the piece he brought Danish art on a par with contemporary European history painting. Art history has reproached Bloch for his pronounced use of theatrical effects.

Samson was followed by several similar pictures, which brought Bloch great recognition, carving him a reputation among his contemporaries as Denmark’s greatest painter. Bloch’s principal work is the series of 23 paintings with scenes from the New Testament that the brewer J.C. Jacobsen (1811-1887) of Carlsberg fame commissioned in 1865 as decorations for King Christian IV’s (1577-1648) prayer seat in Frederiksborg Chapel.