17th century Dutch still life painting

These three still life genres became popular in the seventeenth century, in a religious age when almost everyone
believed that life on earth was merely a preparation for an afterlife. Traditionally naturalistic painting style. Modern
artists have continued to explore this genre.

Memento Mori - Vanitas - Pronkstilleven

Memento Mori (remember you must die)

To remind the viewer of their mortality and of the shortness and fragility of human life

Symbols commonly found: hour glasses or clocks, skulls or extinguished or guttering candles, fruit, and flowers

Pieter Claesz, Still Life with a Skull, 1625, Oil

How would you depict the fragility of human life? Or the resilience of the human life? What are contemporary reminders
of mortality, in the world today? How do you feel about these reminders? Do you embrace these reminders, shun them?
Amplify them? Cover them up, maybe try to forget about them for a moment? Help others be aware of either mortality
or resilience?
Vanitas: death or change, mixed with symbols of vanity or pleasure
To remind the viewer of their mortality and of the worthlessness of worldly goods and pleasures

closely related to memento mori still lifes - they both remind the viewer of the shortness and fragility of life - Vanitas
also includes symbols such as skulls and extinguished candles.

Symbols commonly found: musical instruments, wine and books, exotic fruit, to remind us explicitly of the vanity (in the
sense of worthlessness) of worldly pleasures and goods

Alexis Rockman, Concrete Jungle IV, 1995, oil on wood

Rockman is an artist who has a strong passion for the environment, and is worried about issues such as climate change
and genetic engineering. How do you think Rockman interpreted the vanitas still life genre? What contemporary
symbols did he use to remind us of the shortness of life? What message do you think he is trying to convey?

What is your muse? How can it relate to the concept of vanitas? What is important to you in your life today, that may be
tied temporarily to this Earth? How do you want a viewer to engage with ideas about mortality and temporary or
fleeting pleasures?
Pronkstilleven ('ostentatious', 'ornate' or 'sumptuous' still life)
To show overwhelming abundance, fruits, flowers, dead game

large and complex compositions and elaborate colouring

Envisioned affluence, a feast for the senses

Paintings as luxury objects

Symbols commonly found: Valuable objects, expensive trinkets, silver and gold and crystal

Banquet Still Life, Adriaen van Utrecht, 1644. oil on canvas

How do you want to engage with the idea of ostentatiousness, or

abundance? Do you want to embrace it? Do you want to flip it?
What does luxury mean to you? Whats your luxury object within
the still life or in the world? Others luxury objects? Whats your
luxury space in the world?