The term “still life” describes a work of art that shows inanimate objects from the natural or man-made world, such as fruit, flowers, dead game, and/or vessels like baskets or bowls. Looked at another way: still life’s depict things that are “still” and don’t move.

The earliest known still life paintings were created by the Egyptians in the 15th century. Funerary paintings of food, including crops, fish, and meat, have been discovered in burial sites.

During the Middle Ages, artists changed the still life for religious purposes. In addition to incorporating symbolic arrangements ( a Lilly for purity and innocence) , they also used them to decorate manuscripts. Objects like coins, seashells, and fruit can be found in the borders of these book.

Northern Renaissance artists popularized still life iconography with their flower paintings. These pieces typically showcase colourful flowers “from different countries and different continents in one vase an blooming at the same time” and often do not feature other subject matter. These paintings rose to prominence in the early 17th century, when artists grew increasingly interested in creating realistic studies of everyday items.

Dutch Golden Age artists took this fascination in detailed floral art a step further with their vanitas paintings. Vanitas paintings are inspired by memento mori, a genre of painting thats Latin name translates to “remember that you have to die.” These pieces often pair cut flowers with objects like human skulls, candles, and overturned hourglasses to comment on ‘the fleeting nature of life.’

As still life’s continued in popularity throughout the ages modern day photographers began to experiment at first because of the nature of the photos being ‘still’ and easier to capture with less advanced cameras but quickly became a popular classical style of photography.