All About The Passage Boat by Aelbert Cuyp

Title of Artwork: “The Passage Boat”

Artwork by Aelbert Cuyp

Year Created 1650

Summary of The Passage Boat

The term “passage boat” refers to an old-fashioned term for a ferry, and this one is likely the regular passenger service that ran between Dordrecht and Rotterdam throughout the seventeenth century, part of the extensive network of waterborne public transportation in Holland.

One of the most common types of pleyts is the broad-hulled tub with a single mast that can carry a large number of passengers at a moderate pace in calm waters. The sail is dropped as the boat drifts closer to the jetty, as shown in these two pleyten, which are designed to look like sequential views of the same vessel.

All About The Passage Boat

With a bargepole in hand, a man fights off the coming of the service. This is an impressively large-scale image of a boat, but the boat itself or the purpose it is performing is not noteworthy. As several ships can be seen in the background, there is no evident indication that this is a Dutch fleet review; yet, there are a number of burghers on board the pleyt and the rowing-boat. Every day, we see what we’re seeing here.

The ferry’s solitude and size aren’t the only factors contributing to the presentation’s dramatic impact. Hull and mast are visible against the horizon, which sparkles with light from the setting sun and pushes masts into the clouds, from a water-skimming perspective. Like Rembrandt’s Three Trees (British Museum), these clouds are fashioned like angels or zephyrs around the light of the sky, implying an angelic presence.

As an artist, Hoogstraten tells his students to “observe the wonderful gliding of the clouds, how their drift and shapes are related to one another, because the eye of an artist must constantly recognise things by their essence whereas the common folk see simply bizarre shapes.”

The term “peopled clouds” was first used in 1620 in an allegory of the Dutch’ship of state’, picturing the Stadholder, Prince Maurice of Orange, at the tiller, surrounded by the Seven Provinces, lighted from the sky by a figure of Truth holding the States Bible, as the Pope drowns.

Even though this Passage Boat appears to be an everyday vessel, the image conveys a similar sense of excitement and anticipation. Perhaps this is an analogy of salvation that a spiritual person can find in the everyday fabric of the world. If you were to look at this boat now, you’d be hard-pressed to miss the fact that the mast and sprit-pole cross each other.

Information Citations

En.wikipedia.org, https://en.wikipedia.org/.

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