May 22, 2020
“Still Life with Quinces” by Barbara Goldin
About the Artwork:
“Being in isolation I wanted to paint my immediate environment. My garden backs onto a beautiful bush reserve. This still life was inspired by the flowers I gathered in my garden and placed in a vase next to some quinces on my kitchen table. The light was just right so I stared the painting there and finished it in my studio”. Goldin
Curator’s Notes:
It is interesting to note, the earliest known still life paintings were created by the Egyptians in the 15th Century. The term, “still life” is derived from the Dutch word stilleven, which gained prominence during the 16th century. A still life (also known by its French title, nature morte) painting is a piece that features an arrangement of inanimate objects as its subject. Usually, these items are set on a table and often include organic objects like fruit and flowers and household items like glassw’are and textiles.
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The most famous ancient Egyptian still-life was discovered in the Tomb of Menna, a site whose walls were adorned with exceptionally detailed scenes of everyday life.
Image: Wikimedia Commons -
While Ancient Greeks & Romans mostly reserved still life subject matter for mosaics, they also employed it for frescoes, like Still Life with Glass Bowl of Fruit and Vases, a 1st-century wall painting from Pompeii. Image Wikimedia Commons
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