Still life is an arrangement of objects, typically including fruit and flowers and objects contrasting with these in texture, such as bowls and glassware.

Still life originated during the early 1600s Dutch and Northern European paintings. Many of the objects symbolise religion and morality. Colonialism played a part in still life since it means, control by one power over a dependent area or people. This led to the suppression of traditional African art forms and the promotion of European art. In the early (and modern) still life work, you can see burnt candles, human skulls, dying flowers, fruits and vegetables, broken chalices, jewellery, crowns, watches, mirrors, bottles, glasses and vases. These could be symbolic of the brevity of life, power, beauty and wealth. The most common objects to be seen are skulls and hourglasses which could symbolise death and the fragility of life, the hourglass connects with the skull to portray the time that you have left.

Pieter Claesz was a Dutch painter of the 17th century. He painted still-life images. His range of subjects included breakfast settings with glass or metal objects painted in a monochromatic colour palette and layouts of different objects. The image below is one of his paintings.