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Still Life
INSIGHTS INTO CHANGES OF MENTALITY AND PHILOSOPHY. HOW DO THE OBJECTS IN A STILL LIFE REFLECT THE CUSTOMS, IDEAS AND ASPIRATIONS OF THE TIME? THIS IS ONE OF THE QUESTIONS WHICH NORBERT SCHNEIDER ASKS IN THIS BOOK. THE PERIOD BETWEEN THE LATE MIDDLE AGES AND THE 17TH CENTURY WAS WITHOUT DOUBT THE HEYDAY OF THE STILL LIFE. IT IS AN ART FORM WHICH GIVES US VALUABLE INSIGHTS INTO CHANGES OF MENTALITY AND PHILOSOPHY AS WELL AS PEOPLE'S NOTIONS OF DEATH. STILL LIFES CHART THE HISTORY OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERIES AND THEIR ACCEPTANCE AS WELL AS THE GRADUAL REPLACEMENT OF THE MEDIAEVAL CONCEPT OF THE WORLD.
- GenresArtNonfictionReference
216 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1989
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
September 28, 2023
I found this tour of Dutch, mostly, still life paintings from the late fifteenth to the early 18th centuries well illustrated and critically illuminating.
Schneider makes it straightforward for an interested non-specialist like myself to understand the background of still life painting and how a viewer can interpret the images, as well as admire the skill with which the paint is applied and the pictures are composed. Furthermore, he divides the genre into different sections that focus on, for example, kitchen scenes, vanitas paintings, dessert and confectionery, religious images contained within still life settings of fruit and flowers, 'wonder chambers' and weapons. This makes it easier both to focus on meanings and to compare the different ways artists have portrayed similar subjects.
If nothing else, Schneider encourages us to look carefully at details - sometimes, in the illustrations, rather difficult to see because of the darkness of some areas of the paintings - and to consider why those details might have been included, especially in terms of their religious, symbolic significance. Why is a 'Cross Spider' seen descending towards a fly (or is it a wasp?)? why might a painting include a glass of wine, a loaf of bread, a purse of money, a pack of cards and a lute lying strings-down? why has the artist included a parrot perching on the edge of a bowl of nuts, figs and raisins? At the same time, not every painting is loaded with meaning, and many may be more simply interpreted as presenting abundance as an implied vanitas. And some, often of dead game or a splendidly well-provided kitchen may be intended to do no more than display the painter's skill or flatter a potential buyer.
The dust jacket of my edition is particularly fine as it shows a detail from a trompe l'oeil by Samuel van Hoogstraten who depicts a number of delightfully random everyday objects from a well to do family's domestic life - for instance, a shaving brush, a cameo, scissors, a chain of office or a chain for displaying a medal struck with an image of Ferdinand III, Holy Roman Emperor, sealing wax, a pair of spectacles, some marbled paper and a spectacularly long-toothed comb. I wonder if it is possible to see the paintings shown in 'Still Life' in this much detail in their galleries. I doubt it, but it would be wonderful if one could.
A nicely accessible, scholarly introduction to one area of still life painting.
Schneider makes it straightforward for an interested non-specialist like myself to understand the background of still life painting and how a viewer can interpret the images, as well as admire the skill with which the paint is applied and the pictures are composed. Furthermore, he divides the genre into different sections that focus on, for example, kitchen scenes, vanitas paintings, dessert and confectionery, religious images contained within still life settings of fruit and flowers, 'wonder chambers' and weapons. This makes it easier both to focus on meanings and to compare the different ways artists have portrayed similar subjects.
If nothing else, Schneider encourages us to look carefully at details - sometimes, in the illustrations, rather difficult to see because of the darkness of some areas of the paintings - and to consider why those details might have been included, especially in terms of their religious, symbolic significance. Why is a 'Cross Spider' seen descending towards a fly (or is it a wasp?)? why might a painting include a glass of wine, a loaf of bread, a purse of money, a pack of cards and a lute lying strings-down? why has the artist included a parrot perching on the edge of a bowl of nuts, figs and raisins? At the same time, not every painting is loaded with meaning, and many may be more simply interpreted as presenting abundance as an implied vanitas. And some, often of dead game or a splendidly well-provided kitchen may be intended to do no more than display the painter's skill or flatter a potential buyer.
The dust jacket of my edition is particularly fine as it shows a detail from a trompe l'oeil by Samuel van Hoogstraten who depicts a number of delightfully random everyday objects from a well to do family's domestic life - for instance, a shaving brush, a cameo, scissors, a chain of office or a chain for displaying a medal struck with an image of Ferdinand III, Holy Roman Emperor, sealing wax, a pair of spectacles, some marbled paper and a spectacularly long-toothed comb. I wonder if it is possible to see the paintings shown in 'Still Life' in this much detail in their galleries. I doubt it, but it would be wonderful if one could.
A nicely accessible, scholarly introduction to one area of still life painting.
December 4, 2021
A concise and beautifully arranged book on the art of still life paintings.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews