Still Life originated in the Netherlands in the 16th to the 17th century during the urbanisation which led to people emphasising on peoples homes, personal possessions and commerce. Colonialism is when there is one person in power over other people. By 1840, photography had spread like wildfire and become a vital aspect of European colonialism. Colonialism led to the suppression of traditional African art forms and the promotion of European art. In early still life images you can see skulls, candles and hourglasses. These were very popular in the 19th century. These still life objects could symbolise death and fragility of life, the hourglass connects with the skull to portray the time that you have left.

Still Life – Mood Board

What is still life?

Still life is an arrangement of different objects, such as skulls, fruit, candles and books like you can see in this photograph. It is also a work of art that shows images of objects from the natural and man-made world. Still life is found everywhere in the world even from the ancient Egyptians tombs where there is seen to be daily still life objects carved on the side. The genre became popular in the Netherlands during 17th century when urbanisation led to an emphasis on the personal possessions.

In this mood board it has some still life images. There are skulls, fruit, candles and hour glasses seen in these images. I really like these still life images because there is always a story being told through the different objects and also the placement of the objects. The top image in the middle presents old age, or even death. I can infer this from the image because there is a skull which symbolises death, and there is also a a feather in a pot of ink which is what people used to write with in the 6th century. The feather could also represent the feather of a dove. A dove symbolises peace and love which could refer back to a peaceful death.

Image Analysis