Adriaen van Ostade shows both compassion and social distance in this scene. The motif refers to Christian compassion, but also reflects the ambivalent attitude towards poverty in Dutch genre painting.
Outsiders in the spotlight
A beggar has gathered in front of a farmhouse captured from an oblique perspective, hoping for gifts with his hurdy-gurdy. A small audience has already gathered around him, children and adults alike. Even the elderly owner of the house, keeping a safe distance in the doorway despite his benevolent curiosity, forms a small ensemble with those listening outside.
The hurdy-gurdy, also known as the peasant or beggar's lyre, with its drawn-out, lament-like tones, was a particularly common instrument in the poor milieu before it found its way into the world of courtly music in the 18th century. Beggars who offered a minimal performance in the form of a small musical offering were held in higher esteem than their merely lamenting counterparts. They could hope to receive alms more often.
Since its emergence in the early 16th century, Dutch genre painting has paid particular attention to the subject of beggars, preferably in a village setting. The conspicuous existence of those unable to work and dependent on the help of those around them was a constant call to charitable action, as laid down in the canon of the “Seven Works of Mercy”, or misericordia, introduced into the pictorial world in the late Middle Ages. Of course, this basic attitude based on the Christian commandment to love one's neighbor did not exclude the fact that there was always skepticism, even rejection and fear towards this considerable group outside the bourgeois norm with their appeal to earn an honest living independently.
Adriaen van Ostade, who worked in Haarlem, gave this theme a special place in his work. This area of the genre, which is reserved for the lower classes, was given an independent character by Ostade.
Text: Ulrich Becker