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Still life, as a particular genre, began with Netherlandish painting of the 16th and 17th centuries, and the English term still life derives from the Dutch word stilleven. Early still-life paintings, particularly before 1700, often contained religious and allegorical symbolism relating to the objects depicted.
As with its counterpart in the North, still life painting in southern Europe flourished in the seventeenth century; however, the tradition had its gestation in antiquity, and its popularity extended into the following centuries.
Walter Liedtke. Department of European Paintings, The Metropolitan Museum of Art. October 2003. Still-life painting as an independent genre or specialty first flourished in the Netherlands during the early 1600s, although German and French painters (for example, Georg Flegel and Sebastian Stoskopff; 21.152.1, 2002.68) were also early ...
Derived from the Flemish ‘stillleven’ during the Dutch Golden Age of the mid Seventeenth century the genre was practised at that time to show the surge in cultural and economic prominence of the burgeoning mercantile nation. Still life painting flowered as a means to show the achievements, but also transience, of ordinary human life.
In the hierarchy of genres (or subject types) for art established in the seventeenth century by the French Academy, still life was ranked at the bottom – fifth after history painting, portraiture, genre painting (scenes of everyday life) and landscape.
The earliest European still-life painting is usually attributed to Jacopo de’ Barbari (i.e., Dead Bird, 1504). In Western paintings, still life often appears as a minor feature of the design; but until the 17th century it was not generally painted for its own sake, although it was already traditional to East Asian art.
Oct 7, 2020 · Why did it start? What were some of the motivations behind it? And how has it clung onto that low spot on the gallery wall instead of politely disappearing? What's a still life? Well, let's...
