FLEMISH PAINTER FROM THE SECOND HALF OF THE 17TH CENTURY
Still life
oil on canvas, cm 51×51
Still life imposed itself and developed as an autonomous genre in the late 16th and early 17th century in all countries then under the political and cultural influence of the Spanish Crown (including Lombardy, the southern Netherlands and Flanders).
The reasons that contributed to the birth and development of the new genre were manifold, but a fundamental role was certainly played by the changed religious and political climate, as well as geographical and astronomical discoveries that, by expanding the boundaries of the hitherto known world, caused the prevailing secular anthropocentric view to lose ground.
A special relationship is established between the portrayed objects and the individual, whether artist or observer, whereby the former, in their silent stillness, become repositories of human interiority, disquietude and spirituality.
Despite not being represented in the painting, humanity is nevertheless evoked by the mute object in all its fragile, transient and corruptible existence. Thus, the symbolic meanings are revealed of extinguished candles, threads of smoke and soap bubbles, abandoned, dusty or broken-stringed musical instruments, insects, flowers at the peak of their blossoming or withered, and ripe or rotten fruit, half-empty glasses and plates of leftover food, to name but a few.
Our small still life, attributed to an anonymous Flemish painter, can be ascribed to a similar context.
The colours of the canvas are subdued, in shades of brown and green, to emphasise the sense of melancholy and transience that the composition seeks to underline. The half-filled glass refers, as we have said, to the inexorable passing of time, while the glass of which it is composed is a symbol of the fragility of human existence, as is the barely visible butterfly.