Look closely at this painting and let’s start off with this familiar game. We’re going to start by looking for colours as a general view of this painting.

“I spy with my little eye something beginning with ‘G’.” And your eyes immediately go to the figure in the middle, not only because she is set in the centre of the painting but also because her yellow golden garment lights the whole painting. “G”… for green or gold?

“Gold” is the word that I’m looking for. You have guessed and you have won the game. Gold is connected to wealth and this seems to be a wealthy household. But we cannot stop there. There are more things going on in this painting. Now, I would like you to look for an object which gives the idea that this painting has a snapshot nature, where everything is static, no words, no movement; just an action stopped by a painter. “I spy with my little eye something beginning with ‘C’.” Would I be right in saying that the Clock is ticking away the time in this dark rich house? Above this Clock, paintings of ancestors and long dead inhabitants of this house, hang on the walls of this room. If you look round the room, you tend to forget what is going on. So let’s not get lost by just looking at the setting of this room.

Going back to the figure in the centre, who we’re going to call Dora, and following her pointed finger, we look through a narrow corridor from which an old woman wearing an ghonnella is entering. Favray, the artist, has depicted the moment of arrival of this visitor who could be a relative or a friend, in a typical Maltese rich house of that time. Though there is some kind of organisation of the people, there is an apparent randomness of the image, as if Favray wanted to include all his figures in the painting with all the details. Dora tilts her head to the left, over to the woman sitting down. The news seems to be interesting as the woman in the dark blue taffeta dress stops from working the lace to look up at Dora with an astonished glance to listen to what she has to say. Facing her, I spy with my little eye something beginning with “P”. There is a young child in a wicker basket playing inattentively with a black and white Pig or… Puppy? The young child placed next to Dora, seems somewhat too small in proportion. This may be another reason why we initially focus on Dora who is probably a friend of the family and has brought home the news of the arrival of a relative or friend of this same family.

Spying with your little eyes what will the reaction of the woman sitting down and the baby be when they hear the news?

This painting by Antoine de Favray (1706-1798) Maltese lady visiting her lady friend can be found at The National Museum of Fine Arts.

Article sent by Carmen Sultana,

a B.Ed University student

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