Packing up our apartment is proving so much fun that my mind has been wandering to a pose which—I learned on a trip to The Hague several years ago—was the Dutch Golden Age equivalent of giving someone the middle finger.
I was touring the Hague Historical Museum when my guide and I faced Everard Crijnsz. van der Maes’ 1617 painting of Willem Jansz. Cock, the standard bearer of the Oranje Vendel of the Hague militia. Clad in loud, orange colors, the subject carries his troop’s flag over his shoulder and looks back at the viewer with arm akimbo—half the pose of a frustrated parent with hands on hips.
Nearly the same posture arises in a 1621 depiction of another standard bearer (this one green) at the Hague museum by Joachim Houckgeest and at the National Gallery of Art here in Washington—Johannes Cornelisz Verspronck’s 1640 “Andries Stilte as a Standard Bearer.” The latter, dressed in pink, seems to leap off the wall in a room filled with otherwise modestly-dressed Dutchmen, wearing just black and white and ruffles all over.
Why the loud dress? And what in the world is a standard bearer?
“The idea that an ensign’s outfit should be colorful goes back to the prestigious but also dangerous historical function of a standard bearer within the civic guard. Along with the captain and the lieutenant, the ensign traditionally stood at the front of the infantry, where he held aloft the company’s standard,” writes Arthur K. Wheelock Jr., who retired a few years ago as curator of northern baroque paintings at the National Gallery, on the museum’s website.
“His brightly colored clothing was meant to bring attention to his person, making the commanders less of a target,” Wheelock adds. “Because the position involved a high risk of being shot, standard bearers were required to be bachelors.”
Though the civic guards in Holland had become essentially social clubs by the point these paintings were made, standard bearers remained entitled to dress in a certain way that was rather different from the attire of their buttoned-up Protestant comrades. And, my Hague guide informed, they were allowed to pose with arm akimbo, which was otherwise considered obscene and liable to incline the fellow on the receiving end to respond violently.
Not all standard bearers posed thusly. See, for example, a Rembrandt depiction of a standard bearer at the Met, while another from Rembrandt’s studio shows an arm akimbo. (See also Art Newspaper coverage.)
Alas, not much is to be gained by throwing an elbow—or middle finger—out at packing up an apartment, which would not grasp the insult. But it is a little comforting to know that at least in 17th century Holland, obscene gestures had a silver (or pink or green) lining and were ornate and arresting even as they were offensive.
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The pose definitely conveys "sass" to me. Some rock bands pose with players' elbows out. I just read a mystery novel (fun) set in Greece where, in addition to giving the finger, people (mainly men, in the book I read) also use an open palm, fingers spread to mean the same thing. So, for me, if I were to use a raised open palm to signal "stop" that wouldn't work in Athens. So many ways to say eff you, I guess. But it could get confusing.