In still-life imagery, inanimate objects take center stage! 

So, what is a still-life?

This video explores how artists like the seventeenth-century Dutch female painter Rachel Ruysch present collections of natural and manufactured objects in ways that engage viewers’ senses and suggest meaning. Still-life imagery is a way for artists to explore shape, color, light, and texture, as well as new forms and ideas.

Main objects:

1. Rachel Ruysch, A Vase of Flowers, 1689, oil on canvas. San Diego Museum of Art.

2. Fede Galizia, Still Life with Apples, Pears, Cucumbers, Figs, Plums, and a Melon, c. 1625–30 CE, oil on panel. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.

CHAPTERS

0:28 What is a still-life?

0:30 A vase of flowers by Rachel Ruysch

0:40 What do still lifes include?

1:15 What are still-life artists interested in?

1:30 Backgrounds in still-life imagery

1:55 Media for still lifes

2:04 Inanimate objects can tell a story, too!

2:45 Still-life imagery is found across time and space

3:06 Still-life pleases our senses