Dutch Still Life Paintings 🎨 Pleasures of Not Knowing

[Subtitle available in English]

What is it about 17th-century Dutch still lifes that makes them such compelling artworks? In this episode, I work through many layers of meanings in these pictures of silent, inanimate objects that reveal the paradoxes of the "Dutch Golden Age.” Find out how NOT knowing the one, “correct" meaning of a picture can lead to a rich and rewarding experience of looking at art.

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Music:
“I Think We Made It” by Spectacles Wallet and Watch on Epidemic Sound
“Rain Outside, Sun Within" by Arthur Benson on Epidemic Sound
“Etude No 1 For String Quartet” by Peter Sandberg on Epidemic Sound

Bibliography:
Julie Berger Hochstrasser, Still Life and Trade in the Dutch Golden Age (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2007)
Simon Schama, The Embarrassment of Riches: An Interpretation of Dutch Culture in the Goldden Age (Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1988)
Celeste Brusati, “Natural Artifice and Material Values in Dutch Still Life,” in Looking at Dutch Art: Realism Reconsidered, ed. Wayne Franits (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997), pp. 144-157.

All footage and images are my own unless noted in the Image Credit.

Image Credit
Abraham van Beyeren, Banquet Still Life, 1667 / Los Angeles County Art Museum / Public Domain
Floris Claesz. van Dijck, Still Life with Cheese, ca. 1615 / Rijksmuseum / Public Domain
Abraham Van Beyeren, Still Life, around 1640-1680 / Rijksmuseum / Public Domain
Willem Kalf, Still Life with Fruit, Glassware, and a Wanli Bowl, 1659 / Metropolitan Museum of Art / Public Domain
Willem Claesz Heda, Still Life with Oysters, a Silver Tazza, and Glassware, 1635 / Metropolitan Museum of Art / Public Domain
Clara Peeters, Still Life with Cheese, Artichoke, and Cherries, around 1625 / Los Angeles County Art Museum / Public Domain
Willem Kalf, Still Life, c. 1660 / National Gallery of Art / Public Domain
Willem Kalf, Still Life with Nautilus Cup, 1665/1670 / National Gallery of Art / Public Domain
Nautilus cup, Amsterdam, the Netherlands, around 1630-1660, nautilus shell, silver gilt / Rijksmuseum / Public Domain
Willem Janszoon Blaeu and Josua van den Ende, Nova totius terrarium orbis geographica ac hydrographica tabula, 1635 / New York Public Library / Public Domain - modified
Jan Davidsz de Heem, Still Life: A Banqueting Scene, probably around 1640-41 / Metropolitan Museum of Art / Public Domain - modified
Juriaen van Streeck, Still Life with Peaches and a Lemon / Wikimedia Commons / Public Domain
Juriaen van Streeck, Still Life with a Moor and Porcelain Vessels, around 1670 / Alte Pinakothek, Munich / CC BY-SA 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/...

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