The term still life refers to a work of art that presents inanimate objects from the natural or man-made world, such as fruit, flowers, and/or objects such as baskets or bowls.
TIMELINE
Still life started in the 17th century when paintings of objects became popular throughout Europe. Artists would arrange and paint the objects in a way that was visually appealing
Still-life photography’s started in the early 20th century. Art photographers emerged such as Baron Adolf de Meyer.
VANITAS
DEFINITION: a still-life painting of a 17th-century Dutch genre containing symbols of death or change as a reminder of their inevitability.
A vanitas painting contains objects that are meant to symbolise the inevitability of death to show the ways in which objects, achievements and pleasures are transient and vain. it exhorts the viewer to consider mortality and to repent.
Although some vanitas pictures include figures, the majority are pure still lifes.
MOMENTO MORI
DEFINITION: an object kept as a reminder of the inevitability of death, such as a skull.
The Latin phrase memento mori literally means, “Remember that you must die.”
The vanitas and memento mori picture became popular in the seventeenth century, almost everyone believed that life on earth was merely a preparation for an afterlife. However, modern artists have continued to explore this genre.
SYMBOLS AND MEANINGS
still life can be interpretted in many different ways
some of the common symbols are:
fruit- can symbolise religion such as the apple from the story of Adam and Eve.
skulls- symbolise morality
Candles- passing of time
flowers- symbolise life and growth