A lecture in the series Time for Art!
Leader: Lena Lewandowska

Ontbijten, blommetjes, visstillevens... still lifes were among the leading subjects of Dutch Golden Age painting. The Dutch were the first to start 'portraying' objects, hitherto only a peripheral element in the scenery of paintings. It is to them that we owe the multiplicity of still life types. Why did the genre gain autonomy precisely in the Netherlands in the 17th century? Do the elegant arrangements of objects conceal symbolic meanings? By tracing the genesis and outlining the history of still life, we will try to answer these and other questions.