Still Life Art - Research Paper Example

Still life painting is ubiquitous in historic Egyptian tombs. Egyptians are considered one of the oldest civilizations of the world and the existence of still life is an indicative of its historic nature. The concept behind Egyptian still life was that these pieces of art would turn into real life in the afterlife and would be available for use for those who have deceased. The Greek civilization also shows the presence of still life art. Sticking to its own norms and rules, academic reflections tend to lag behind developments in the art world.

The word still life was used as late as the 17th century and was first discovered in Dutch inventories (Slive). Other terms which were considered for defining the aforementioned art included fruytagie, bancket and ontbijt. In the 17th century the Parisian Academy of art helped in the foundation of the first schools of art in Europe. A specific set of rules were laid down that explained which forms of art will be taught on a hierarchical basis. Still life was struggling at the bottom of that list because they were considered as mere recordings of inanimate objects or things that were considered to be there without much thought to how they came about in existence.

Still life, however, was later acknowledged as a true form of art and gained repute with every additional contribution. Several artists used it as a starting point and often considered the results of still life to be much more appealing than what they thought they would be (Schneider). The earliest forms of most medieval still life were designed in an era that was struck with economic turmoil as well as the dissolution of feudalistic cultures. The motifs of these paintings, hence, were indicative of the changes in economic and social conditions taking place.

There were changes in agricultural situations and status quos as well. Some of the art was aimed to depict those changes. Two of the primary scenes depicted in the era were market scenes and kitchen scenes (Ebert-Schifferer). The 16th Century: The 16th century was the tipping point for still life art as there was an enormous increase in interest in nature and the creation of botanical encyclopedias that informed of the discoveries of the new world and Asia. These areas of interest were subject to significant use by still life artists as their paintings and artistry moved towards their depiction.

While the first half of the 16th century did not recognize still life as an autonomous category of art, by the latter half of the century autonomous still life was evolved. Slowly but surely, religious content started to diminish from paintings and artists started to focus more on still objects. The key contributors of still life in the 16th century include Alberceht Durer, Maarten van Heemskerck, Annibe Carraci and Joachim Beuckelear. The 17th Century: The 17th century saw the growth of Italian still life art.

Despite its growth, however, it was considered inferior to art that focused on historical, religious and mythological subjects. Many prominent contributors and artists thought that still life art was lacking something and had some way to go before any piece of the art could be considered as great. This is one of the reasons why there were considerably lesser number of people who dedicated their work to still life. Some of the prominent artists who contributed to still life include Caravvigo and Jan