Technical

Lighting: The lighting in this painting is minimal and most likely natural from a window.

Visual

There an abundance of different colours in this painting. There’s lots of rich orange which shows wealth because at the time bright fabrics were expensive so were only bought by the rich. There’s also a lot of gold which also symbolises wealth.

Contextual

This painting was painted by Willem Kalf a Dutch still-life painter. His style of still life was called ‘pronkstilleven’ which translates as the life that is luxurious with items that represent wealth. This specific painting is called ‘Still Life with a Nautilus Cup’, 1662. A Nautilus cup was seen as the item of kings in the 17th century.

Conceptual

In the foreground, you can see the items resting on a marble that symbolizes wealth. Many items in the image symbolize wealth as well. The china pot, the shell chalice, and even the orange and lemon are all symbols of wealth because the orange and the lemon were originally grown in Asia and are symbolic of trade. The peeled lemon is supposed to represent the passing of time but also Lemons were very expensive so they were popular because they showed wealth in the 16th century because only the rich traded with the east. Lemons are very sour and bitter so they were considered to symbolize deceptive allure/attraction of earthly beauty. The focal point of the image is the lemon because the light has illuminated the lemon the most, whereas everything else is slightly submerged in darkness.

Famous Still life artists: Van Gogh. Wilhelm Kalf, Pieter Claesz,