Still Life
The term still life refers to a subject consisting of objects inanimate (fruits, flowers, vases, etc.). or dead animals, then, by metonymy, a work (in painting or photography , etc..) representing a still life. The term appears only at the end of the seventeenth century. Until then, only cose naturali (natural things) was used by Vasari to describe the painted motifs of Giovanni da Udine. Then in Flanders in 1650, the term appears to stilleven "parts of fruits, flowers, fish" or "parts of meals served, then adopted by the Germans (Stilleben) and the English (still-life) that would result "quiet life or still life." In Spain, the term to talk about is bodegones lifes. The term "still life" appears in the eighteenth century.Diderot in his Salon, speaks of "inanimate nature."
Charles Sterling , specializing in still life History and types of still lifes The first still lifes from the period Hellenistic ( Third and second centuries BC. ) but we still do descriptions: no painting have survived to us. According to Pliny the Elder , the most famous of all kinds-mortistes this period was Pirakos ( IV and III centuryBC. ). He painted barbers' shops and cobblers, mainly donkeys and groceries - probably in easel paintings. This is called rhopographie (representation of small objects) and rhyparographie (object representation base) that have negative connotations. Yet the painter, still according to Pliny, has been a great success and his paintings, seen as minor, sell better and more expensive than those of his most prominent contemporaries. Despite this critical view from his contemporaries, still life of antiquity already has another ambition than merely mimetic pleasure, "It is clear that the Hellenistic and Roman still lifes representing the dishes ready for consumption contained an allusion Epicurean. "as stated Charles Sterling (Sterling Charles, Nature Morte, from antiquity to the twentieth century, new revised edition, Paris, Macula, 1985, p. II). It is thus quite frequently mosaics still lifes as well as vanities in the atria was Roman, where the guests invited to the meal thus found recalled the "carpe diem" horacien! With the Catholic hegemony, representation of objects as only about a work disappears in the Middle Ages. At that time, "the realistic spirit faded in favor of an emblematic language understood by all Christendom. Objects, by submitting on a composition, contribute to the development of religious themes, they are of paramount importance in the meaning of certain biblical scenes, they are, they date, they characterize the characters. "(Michael and Fare Fabrice, "quiet life still life" in the still life of Jan Bruegel Velvet (1568-1625) to Chaim Soutine (1893-1943), exhibition catalog, Bordeaux, ed. Gallery of Fine Arts. 1978. p7.). These objects are no longer there for their own existence, but for what they symbolize, and is one of the main reasons why experts often agree to consider that there is no lifes during this period of history. It was not until the theologies of St. Francis of Assisi , and St. Thomas Aquinas , the return of the Aristotelian philosophy and the theories of Roger Bacon and William of Occam to see the Catholic reconciliation with the sensations and the experience of nature, and for recur some interest in the subject as such through the works of Giotto (trompe l'oeil mural of 1305 representing a wrought iron chandelier in the Scrovegni Chapel in Padua) and by Duccio di Buoninsegna (circa 1255-1260, to 1318-1319). However, it will take another two centuries to see win the representation of objects as the subject of a painting. In the modern world, still life was born in the sixteenth century , but developed mainly from the seventeenth century , schools in the north (Flanders and Holland), still very likely to represent a real thought. It then spread to Europe, and particularly in France. In the seventeenth century. In Spain, still lifes, are essentially in the form of the Vanities Catholic morality, while northern Europe, Protestant, denying religious subjects and devoted himself to painting landscapes of bourgeois through and they, too, still life. Still life becomes a tool for two main religious powers of the moment. Yet behind these messages provided by piles still lifes lies a genuine interest mimetic. The objects represented certainly retain their religious symbolism inherited from Christian texts, but unlike the medieval period, the aesthetics of painting is of paramount importance, and still life is an opportunity to demonstrate the skill of the artist. Just read the texts of Diderot devoted to Chardin pleased to see that mimetic pure, unspoken in the seventeenth century in the vanities, fully affirmed the eighteenth century and to realize that the representation of objects in Western painting is constantly torn between the pleasure of mimesis and of the symbolic. This duality of the still life is illustrated in antiquity and its first ranking of genres that places still life at the bottom of the scale, while considering Zeuxis as a painter of genius to be able to paint grapes Misleading the fowl. Without going further into this great debate about the art of camouflage, we needed to emphasize that the nature seems dead in the center of it, both in antiquity and during Modernity. - Ibid, p. 18. But if this quote summarizes some of the representation of the still life of XIX century , it does not indicate the full extent of the changes facing this kind at this time. This is mainly because the still life was considered a minor genre too closely during the previous centuries it has not been vested with the complex meanings and expectations associated with other kinds estimated, such as paint story or picture , and she could well become a real instrument pioneering research in formal twentieth century. This transition from still life as a minor genre that plastic tool almost inevitable the twentieth century is through Cezanne who first, and before the Cubists, experiments through the stills of new systems of perspective / representative. What defines the avant-gardes of the twentieth century is essentially the choice of subjects: from simple household items, fruits (not exotic), and more generally, simple objects of everyday life. Posts Outer painterly painting Veterans are removed, and the spark turns into gas lamps, etc.. Strangely, the still life through the art of the twentieth century , when this kind is seen by most people as being outside of contemporary art. The genre has evolved, and the representation of objects is more closely related to Christian symbolism as it was in the seventeenth century , but the significance of the still life has evolved with that of the object. It is therefore not surprising to find still lifes as well in the Surrealists, as in the pop-art when it epitomizes a "consumer society". Anyway, still life is now shared between its long history and its ubiquity within contemporary art. If we wanted to open the debate, it is therefore tempting to think about the readymade as a contemporary still life. For if the art form does not meet the definition of Charles Sterling cited in the introduction, it is nevertheless the development of a harmless object through art, curators and some don ' not hesitate to involve the ready-made still life, as demonstrated by the exhibition Objects of Desire: The Modern Still Life organized by The Museum of Modern Art in New York in 1997. The question still life still remains open. In the Middle Ages, the still life as we knew it disappears because of the Catholic hegemony. We painted Christianity. We painted symbolic objects. In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, still life takes its rise in Flanders and Holland, to the north is devoted to painting bourgeois and religious works to the south. In the eighteenth century, the Western representation of objects of symbolism going to aesthetics and vice versa. In 1650, the Netherlands, the term appears Stilleben, the English still-life in Spain and France bodegones silent life. In the nineteenth century , Delacroix will be different from other painters of still life. These artists will argue in their eyes the art and science. The symbolic value of the object will be perpetuated over time and become a mathematical constant of French painting. A tool on which to rely to measure the evolution of society, culture, religion ... In the nineteenth and the twentieth century , we painted the things of everyday life in contrast to the neo -classical (roughly the period 1700 to 1850) where we painted objects from the ancient Roman and Greek. In the nineteenth century, 1839, photography is slowly replacing the painting. The camera became accessible to all, the need for a painter to reproduce the same objects disappearing gradually. In the seventeenth century Flemish still life is characterized by The workshop of Rubens employs many still-life painters, whose style layer more or less the master. Its main representatives are: The Art of Flemish still life is perpetuated in the eighteenth century and spread throughout Europe. Often contrasted with Flemish and Dutch schools. Indeed, in the Northern Netherlands, the political-economic system that patrons are often middle class - wealthy or not - not wealthy aristocrats. Still-life, theme bourgeois par excellence, is of great importance, and is characterized by The Dutch painters sometimes produce tables in a quasi-mechanical. Each has its specialty: flowers, books, meals interrupted ... There is a strong development of vanity, which is characterized by the presence of a skull and / or clock, references to time passing and vanity of possessions. Under the influence of Rembrandt , a major figure in the Dutch school, the stylistic innovations are taking place: chiaroscuro intense button which is released, increasing the mystery and the lyrical dimension of the work. Leading representatives of the Dutch still life are: Charbonneaux AM, The Vanities In the Contemporary Art , Paris, ed. Flammarion, 2005. Anonymous, Still life of Bruegel to Soutine exhibition catalog, Bordeaux, ed. Gallery of Fine Arts, 1978. COUNTY H., Still Life from Antiquity to the Present - The Silent Life, Paris, Casterman, 1992. FARE, Michel, The Still Life in France. Its history and evolution of the seventeenth to twentieth-century Geneva, Pierre Cailler, 1962. ROWELL, Margit, Objects of Desire: The Modern Still Life, exhibition catalog, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, Distributed by Harry N. ABRAMS, inc., 1997. Schapiro, Meyer, The Apples of Cezanne, Essay on the Meaning of still life. Style, Artist and Society, translated by Blaise Allan, Daniel Arasse Guy Durand, Louis Evrard, Vincent of Soda works, and Jean-Claude Lebensztejn. Paris, ed. Gallimard, 1982. STERLING, Charles, still life from antiquity to the twentieth century, new revised edition, Paris, Macula, 1985. Antiquity
Middle Ages
XVII century
XVIII century
XIX century
XX century
Conclusion
Schools
Flemish School
XVII century
XVIII century
Dutch school
XVII century
French School
XVII century
XVII century
References
See also
Artistic Themes
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