Edouard Manet once calledstill lifethe touchstone of painting.
What is a Still Life?
The term still life is derived from the Dutch word stilleven, which gained prominence during the 16th century.
In most cases, symbolic paintings use different objects to convey deeper meanings or narratives.
This is best exemplified perhaps invanitaspainting: a genre of still life that focuses on the fleetingness of life.
Funerary paintings of foodincluding crops, fish, and meathave been discovered in ancient burial sites.
Jacopo da Empoli, “Still Life,” c. 1625 (Photo:Wikimedia Commons, Public domain)
Ancient Greeks and Romans also created similar depictions of inanimate objects.
Paul Cezanne, The Basket of Apples' (ca.
Paul Cezanne, Still Life with Skull, ca.
“Still-Life Found in the Tomb of Menna” (Photo:The Yorck ProjectviaWikimedia Commons, Public domain)
They gave a new perspectiveliterallyto the still life genre with flattened planes that show multiple angles at once.
“Still Life with Glass Bowl of Fruit and Vases,” 63 – 79 CE (Photo:The Yorck ProjectviaWikimedia Commons, Public domain)
“Hours of Catherine of Cleves,” 1440
Jan Brueghel the Elder, “Flowers in a Wooden Vessel,” 1606 – 1607 (Photo:Google Art ProjectviaWikimedia Commons, Public domain)
Pieter Claesz, “Vanitas – Still Life,” 1625 (Photo:Memory of the NetherlandsviaWikimedia Commons, Public domain)
Vincentvan Gogh, “Sunflowers,” 1889 (Photo:The National GalleryviaWikimedia Commons, Public domain)
Paul Cézanne, The Basket of Apples' (ca. 1895) (Photo: wasrtburg.edu viaWikimedia Commons, Public domain)
Paul Cézanne, “Still Life with Skull,” ca. 1895 – 1900 (Photo:Artwork OnlyviaWikimedia Commons, Public domain)
Georges Braque, “Still Life with Metronome,” 1909 (Photo:The Metropolitan Museum of ArtviaWikimedia Commons, Public domain)
Tjalf Sparnaay, “Healthy Sandwich,” 2013
