Victor Vasnetsov
In the Costume of a Wandering Minstrel
circa 1882
Somewhat reminiscent of Johannes Vermeer’s Girl in Red Hat (see post for 25 November 2012), this child also assumes an aged role. In either picture the children are surrounded by an equal play between bright colours and Oriental- or Far Eastern-stylised textiles and prints. Each subject takes centre stage in their frames (a ‘tool’ employed by the artists which directs the viewer’s immediate attention to the children’s postures and strong contours) while each bears a similarly repressed attitude of one restricted by costume. Youth is prominent in both subjects; rather than shielding it, their clothing is only a shell which acts to cup or contain their suggested childlike qualities.
But there is a difference between these works of art that rather than dividing the subjects, connects them. Note that while the young minstrel broodingly avoids our eye contact, Vermeer’s anonymous girl firmly holds it. It is he whose character is known (the 'minstrel') who is strangely the one to hide his face, while the girl whose name is not known is the one to stare at us plainly, almost in a way which dares us to label her. The girl is silent and surprisingly sure of herself; she wears a bold red hat which may be read as an annotation to her self-confidence in spite of the cumbersome costume she wears. But Vasnetsov’s boy, introverted and quietly absorbed in his thoughts, is a child who is silent within another, if not deeper, dimension. His costume alludes to the art of telling tales and improvising stories; he, as opposed to Vermeer’s girl, is not as sure of himself or of his future, or of what his mind may dictate next. Even if each child is distant and unrelated to the other, they nevertheless share a similar sense of inner ‘wandering’.
