STILL LIFE PAINTING

                       VASE  OF  FLOWERS

A still life (plural: still lifes) is a work of art depicting mostly inanimate subject matter, typically commonplace objects which are either natural (food, flowers, dead animals, plants, rocks, shells, etc.) or man-made (drinking glasses, books, vases, jewelry, coins, pipes, etc.).
                                                                      One advantage of the still-life art form is that it allows an artist a lot of freedom to experiment with the arrangement of elements within a composition of a painting.

Who painted the first still life?

Jacopo de'Barbari

The painting generally considered to be the first still life is a work by the Italian painter Jacopo de'Barbari painted 1504. The “golden age” of still-life painting occurred in the Lowlands during the 17th century.

Still-life paintings often adorn the interior of ancient Egyptian tombs. It was believed that food objects and other items depicted there would, in the afterlife, become real and available for use by the deceased. Ancient Greek vase paintings also demonstrate great skill in depicting everyday objects and animals. Peiraikos is mentioned by Pliny the Elder as a panel painter of "low" subjects, such as survive in mosaic versions and provincial wall-paintings at Pompeii: "barbers' shops, cobblers' stalls, asses, eatables and similar subjects".^[4]


This painting includes all kinds of man-made or natural objects, cut flowers, fruit, vegetables, fish, game, wine and so on. Still life can be a celebration of material pleasures such as food and wine, or often a warning of the ephemerality of these pleasures and of the brevity of human life (see memento mori).

The magic of still life paintings is that they can show us a new way of looking at the ordinary objects around us.

The inanimate objects selected for still life art can show cultural, philosophical level, religious, societal, and cultural values. It provokes introspection and a viewer's reflection. It shows multiple emotions and arrangements, citing color, lighting, and handling.

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. Still life and landscape were considered lowly because they did not involve human subject matter.