Still life is historically a genre of painting where the subject of the painting includes either dead animals and/or inanimate objects such as fruit, candlesticks, fish and cut flowers. Typically still life displays material pleasures and often a warning pointing towards hedonism. Still life can also be a display of memento mori– designed towards remind the viewer of their own morality.

HISTORY OF STILL LIFE

Still life became a dignified art genre with Netherlandish painting of the 16th and 17th centuries. The English term still life derives is translated from the Dutch word stilleven- in French, the term for Still Life is nature morte, which means “dead nature”. Early still life paintings, particularly before 1700, often contained religious and allegorical symbolism relating to the objects depicted- for example some of the earliest still life paintings were created by the Egyptians in the 15th century BCE which decorated the interior of burial tombs

Throughout history still life travelled across the globe, but finding its primary home in the Netherlands during the Dutch Renaissance (17th century) where it became a prevalent art form with many paintings displaying rich colours, hedonistic implications, religious symbols and symbols of death as a reminder of human mortality. Click on the image below for a guide on symbolism in still life.

Still life was then translated to photography, with its origins residing in the early 20th century. Art photographers emerged such as Baron Adolph de Meyer who took direct inspiration from the Dutch painters of the 17th century.

ANALYSIS OF STILL LIFE

This vanitas still life painted by Pieter Claesz in 1625 displays a candlestick holding the stub of a candle, a watch, a letter, a pen and an inkpot, a flower, a skull and a walnut arranged on a table. All of these objects are part of the established language of classic vanitas paintings, engulfed with symbolism of mortality and time passing. The flower at the edge of the table is an anemone, It appears newly picked as the petals and the leaves are still fresh, however anemones have a reputation for withering quickly- the Roman poet Ovid called the anemone a ‘windflower’ because it clings to life for such a short time. In this still life, with its message of time slipping by, the flower certainly refers to the fugitive nature of life; this is further enhanced by the candle which seems as if it is about to blow out and quite obviously, the skull which is where attention is mostly drawn to as the light in the painting is coming from the left side (the candle- and possibly another light source so the painting could still be worked on) and concentrates on the skull which is outlined by shadows, defining its shape. This painting is quite interesting as the composition is quite spread out meaning the shadows are every visible which is especially unusual compared to the contrast of the quite light objects- the flower, skull and paper which are primarily white based.