View On Family Ethic: Research On The Ethic Embodied In Interior Painting In The 17^th Century Dutch

According to Tzvetan Todorov, the image awareness of paintings in the17 th century Dutch Republic was “produced in a ‘blessed’ period of time in human history”. With the development of the market-oriented New Economic Mechanism, the classification of professional development in paintings become more distinct, including landscape painting, portrait painting, history painting, still life painting and genre painting.etc. Based on this phenomenon, the interior painting has make it possible to combine family life with painting. As a result, the aesthetic appreciation which is centered on family is made a reality.Based on analyzing the relationship between the 17 th century Dutch interior paintings and the development of civic culture, this paper will study the ethic in such paintings. The research will be conducted comprehensively from the perspectives of Calvinists and the people’s concepts of life, the frugality and morality inside families and the reasons why families has become the center of cultural consumption. Through historical narrative and close examination of images with ethic elements in the 17 th century Dutch interior paintings, this paper will verify the historical evidence of moral standard being embodied in visual images to represent the reality. By doing so, the author will further discuss the ethic qualities that are praised and admonished in interior paintings. Because as the carrier of the ethic and morality of Protestantism families,interior painting is like a mirror of life, reflecting people’s joyfulness, anger, sadness and happiness.The paper is divided into six parts:The first part is introduction, in which the research background, significance of research, research objectives and methods will be put forward. In addition, this part will also discuss the state of research both at home and abroad. By providing definitions forsome important concepts, this section will pave way for the latter elaboration on the ethic and morality in interior paintings.In the second part, the fields of interior paintings will be explained from three aspects, namely the analysis on the definition of “field” and interior painting, the carriers of indoor space and family life, the interior paintings conveying family ethic, in the purpose of reproducing the ethic that is pursued and practiced by ordinary families and individuals of the time in their daily life. By doing so, this part intends to present in font of the audience the overall cultural background that implicated through paintings, which will provide the academic basis for later discussion.In the third part,the interior paintings’ focus on representation of real life will be discussed in detail. In addition, it will also clarify the possibility of family life as an artistic way of expression and the recreation of realistic emotion. It will explain that the representation of the real world displayed by interior paintings is based on Positivism ideas and integrated with the description of real life emotions.The fourth part is mainly about the explanation of Dutch paintings and the construction of ethic in Protestantism families. From the perspective of new economy concept and cultural concept lead by Calvinism, this part will delve into the influence of multiple factors such as social economy, religious culture, people’s aesthetic appreciation,people’s consumption idea etc. on ethic construction in interior paintings.The fifth part, which is also the emphasis of this paper, will study the ethic connotation embodied in interior paintings caused by social facts based on the analysis of above four parts. From the study of a large quantity of “faithful descriptions”, this part will be centered on the appraisal of family virtues and morality admonishment in interior paintings. In this section, the author will also attempt to analyze interior paintings through studying the extent to which interior painting represents the reality, reflection of social custom in interior painting, how can the viewing patterns of artists cater for the taste of consumers’ aesthetic appreciation, Dutch people’s state of life, the appraisal andcondemnation of people’s behaviors by artists etc. Furthermore, by using the discourse style of image confirmation, this part will also present the evidences that social custom is the interior driving power of family ethic.The six part will provide some social evidences of interior paintings, explaining in general and verifying the rationality of ethic connotation in interior paintings. Interior painting is an important way of expression that can strengthen family tie, maintain the virtues that recognized by the society, and can provide ethics benchmark.