Painting - era & theme depicted ?

Seem to be driven to such paintings when they're found. What's the place and time being depicted here ? Either a European Renaissance village . . a south west depiction, or other ? It's a large oil on thick board 48"x 34", about 20-50 years old, found at my local flea market.

 

Looks like a scene of contemporary surrealism to my eye. Difficult to quickly grasp because the artist has combined two different perspectives. Can you post photographs of different areas? The woman in the foreground, perhaps? What appears to be a Mary Magdalene figure in the mid-ground? And the landscape in the background? Also, (and as always) a photograph of the back. No signature I assume.

Debora

 

No hand and no legs?
I wonder if the painting was used as payment for the services of the lady/ladies ...

 

Personally, I think it's horrible. An amateur painter trying to be trendy for the time.

 

The woman in the foreground has had too much cheap wine (cheap wine glasses) after receiving some bad news (letter on the table).

The cross on the wall suggests a Catholic country. Both women have bare shoulders, so a hot Catholic country.

I don't think so. She seems to have something bulky in her carrying shawl. She is holding a piece of paper loosely in her hand.

 

A Mexican/Spanish brothel? The women are reading between clients - they look very bored.

 

I was also thinking ‘whore house’ but what’s in that basket? Cabbage ? Weird thing to have in a room. So maybe she’s sitting at the kitchen table (planning on making soup) The other has a pot and a towel with a bottle of sented oil to wash herself? They looked scantly dressed.

 

Reminds me of the description of a plate I encountered while researching some pottery on another thread. "It depicts two men and a woman dressed, by 18th century standards, in highly incomplete attire."


https://wmuzeach.pl/all-objects/noLp1LocDhxo2FsHAndm_plate-

 

I looked at that plate and it looks like two men catching a runaway servant using a dog. He isn't dressed as fancy as the two other men but it certainly isn't a woman nor are any of them scantily dressed. The text translates loosely (according to Google) as "Greed pushed one another".

 

Google being creative with an old German saying.

I have never heard the saying, and the language used isn't exactly the same as present day High German, but it could be something like, "when desire forces its way in (= comes into the situation), the other one rants".

 

I like the new translation - the servant stole some stuff because he was poor and the greedy Lord is chasing him even though he doesn't need it. At this point, we can make up any back story we want! LOL.

 

(sorry @Drew for adding another reply that has nothing to do with your item/question )

The site says:
"The presented plate was undoubtedly made to order. It depicts two men and a woman dressed, by 18th century standards, in highly incomplete attire. There is also a dog painted, which has an ambivalent symbolic meaning, signifying impurity and corruption rather than fidelity and friendship. The use of yellow paint indicates the association of woman and dog with betrayal and shamelessness. [...] A plate with such a situational scene and a very telling inscription is probably a joke, an anecdote or perhaps a warning in an unusual form."

 

Sorry for creating the side track. I just liked the "highly incomplete attire" phrase.