Lets start from the beginning. The concept of “still life” – in German “Stilleben” – does not appear in 1650 in dutch inventories, in competition with other definitions “Fruytagie” (fruit), “Banchket” (representations of banquets or lunches). The correct neologism was coined a century later in France in 1780. Jean-Baptiste Descamps explained “still life” as representations of “still objects ” or “inanimate things“.
Still Life with Fruit and Lobster 1648-1649 JAN DAVIDSZ DE HEEM Berlin Staatliche Museen
The reason for these paintings came first with the economic changes from the dissolution of feudal structures and the increase of a greater demand on the products and also a growing interest in goods of varied origin. Recurring themes of market or kitchen scenes, are indicators of new economic and social relations.
Still Life with culled birds and hunting tools 1660 WILLEM VAN AELST Berlin Staatliche Museen
Agricultural products, fruits and vegetables, scenes of butcheries, seafood, cooking, hunting, desserts, candy, books, flowers, themes on vanity with skull motive, symbol of rot to which man can not escape, are the primary form of flattery attitude towards consumer advertising for product experience. Goods acquire a peculiar charm, are transformed into fetishes libidinally desiderable from which it seemed to came a magical power.
Still Life with Flower Ghirlanda and swallows 1690-1695 BARTOLOMEO BIMBI Museum of Still Life Villa Medici of Poggio a Caiano
A repertoire of symbols linked to external power. Besides the noble insignia books, coins, beads, weapons, masks, (symbol of theater), angels, candles, clocks, signs of transience of things, are also pictured. Contemporary still lifes are inspired by those still lifes created in Europe since mid-1600. One of the most important museums in Europe that brings together masterpieces of still lifes is the Museum of Still Life, situated in Villa Medici of Poggio a Caiano.
Museum of Still Life, Villa Medici of Poggio a Caiano
Examples of extraordinary beauty tell the story of a great collection put together with passion by Medici in the course of a century and a half, from the early seventeenth century to the mid-eighteenth century. Works by Italian, Flemish and Dutch artists, purchased or commissioned, which went on to form the largest existing collection of still lifes in Italy and Europe. Artists such as Bartolomeo Bimbi, Felice Boselli, Jan Brueghel, Margherita Caffi, Giovanna Garzoni, Nicolas van Houbraken, Bartholomew Ligozzi, Gaspar Lopez, Mario de ‘Fiori, Otto Marseus, Cristoforo Munari, Pietro Navarra, Filippo Napoletano, Giuseppe Recco, Andrea Driven, Franz Werner Tamm and many others.
Still Life with poppies in a metal vase 1717 BARTOLOMEO BIMBI Villa Medici of Poggio a Caiano
Collections of Medici and Lorena emphasize this important sector of great collectionism of Tuscan dynasties, grand dukes and princes, clients and buyers, which privileged from time to time one or the other of the pleasant residences scattered throughout the territory of the Dominion. And in these villas, they placed themed paintings, which have always represented the family vanity and pride, and which still today constitut the core of many major florentine museums.
Still Life White Moluccan Parrot BARTOLOMEO BIMBI Villa Medici of Poggio a Caiano
Today modern still lifes represent iconographic objects. They express individual identity, telling the story of who wear them. they outline portraits and reveal secrets. In order to love them we must nurture a monomaniac obsessionfor still objects, rich in charm.
Alessio Nesi
