History of Still Life Art
Small inanimate objects--often arranged on a table--make up the typical subjects of still life art. The term usually applies to painting but can refer to any art medium including drawing and sculpting. The still life is seen as far back as ancient Egypt. Still life art as we know it today emerged during the Northern Europe Renaissance in the 1500s. At the time it was viewed as less important than other art genres of the era.
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The Ancient World
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Still life drawings and paintings often decorated the tombs of ancient Egyptians. Food, jewelry and other possessions in the artworks represented items the Egyptians believed were going with the deceased into the afterlife.
The ash from the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 A.D. preserved many early Roman still life fresco paintings. These still lifes represent items that were part of everyday Roman life. "Still Life with Peaches," painted around 50 A.D., is one of the first known examples of three-dimensional still-life painting. The work was unearthed in the ancient ruins of the city of Herculaneum, in the shadow of Mount Vesuvius. It is now part of the collection at the Museo Nazionale Arcologico in Naples, Italy.
Evolution of European Still Life Art
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In the Middle Ages, the subject of most art depicted scenes and characters from the Bible. Painters began to arrange symbolic objects in their depictions of biblical scenes. "Still life motifs occur fairly frequently in manuscripts, books of hours and panel paintings of the 1400s and 1500s," says Walter Leidtke of the Department of European Painting at The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
All of the objects in these early paintings symbolize moral or religious meanings. The lily, for example, represents the purity of the Virgin Mary, Leidtke says, and a pocket watch symbolizes "the fleeting nature of earthly pleasures." In the late 1500s, artists began painting these intimate symbolic objects independently without the biblical scenes. The still life artwork remained less important than works with religious content.
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The Netherlands
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Although painters in other parts of Europe contributed to the development of the new genre, still life painting flourished in the Netherlands. Walter Leidtke says this "reflects the increasing urbanization of Dutch and Flemish society." As the standard of living in Flemish culture increased, the focus shifted from religion to home and everyday life. Flowers became popular still life subjects as well as all types of food and drink. The "moralizing meanings" of the objects remained part of still life art through the 1600s, Liedtke says. Artists began using less blatant religious symbolism, instead commenting more on the human condition.
Vanitas Still Life Painting
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This genre of the still life evolved in the middle 1600s. According to the Rijk Museum in Amsterdam, "The term references the opening verse of Ecclesiastes in the Latin Bible," commenting on the sin of vanity and the intransigence of life. The painters used "skulls, hourglasses, extinguished candles and similar objects to remind the viewer of how short life is," according to the museum.
19th Century
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Paul Cezanne is considered "one of the greatest painters of the late 19th century," according to the Getty Museum. He also is thought by many, including Picasso, to be the father of modern art. Many of Cezanne's greatest works are still lifes. A master of color, Cezanne portrayed the beauty of the objects themselves without any hidden meaning. He also painted from a point of view versus straight perspective. Cezanne's new techniques and ideas signaled a major change from the realism and moralistic symbolism of early still life works.
20th and 21st Centuries
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In 1987, Pablo Picasso's still life "Sunflower" sold for $40 million, making it the most expensive piece of art ever sold at the time---quite an accomplishment for the sometimes underappreciated still life. Picasso, along with painter George Braque, is credited with inventing Cubism which expanded on Cezanne's work with point of view. Cubism still lifes depict several points of view at once, often making it difficult to identify all of the objects in the painting.
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References
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- Photo Credit still-life image by sanyal from Fotolia.com
