O N E U R O P E A N S T I L L - L I F E I N T H E 17th C E N T U R Y by I N G V A R B E R G S T R Ò M

About fourty years ago the main parts of European stil l- l ife were terra incognita. Sirice then the genre has met w i t h an ever increasing interest and enthusiasm and it has been open for discoveries of important and sometimes great painters. Fourty years ago the names of now famous masters like Ambrosius Bosschaert the Elder, Osias Beert, Paolo Porpora, Georg Flegel, Juan Sànchez Cotan and Baugin were unknown or nearly u n k n o w n .

D u r i n g these last fourty years exhibit ions, the forming of public and private collections of still-life and a greatly increasing international art historical research (see bibliographv; for Italian sti l l- l ife see bibliographies i n : Naples, 1964 an Ber­gamo, 1968) have taken place. I n reciprocai action they have gradually made pos-sible more reliable attributions, the understanding of the contributions of those who were the great leading masters and a much better general survey. I t has made the national characteristics of the 17th century stil l- l ife of the leading countries stand out more clearly. A few points f rom this vast f ield w i l l be noted in the fo l lowing .

T i l l about 1600 F L A N D E R S and Hol land had a development in painting largely in common. M u c h of the 16th century preludes are located to Flanders. Some types of st i l l -life compositions were created there already in the second half of that century (confer nrs 5, 11, 12 of the present catalogue).

Flower-painting had been a Flemish and Dutch speciality since the late Medieval Age, when plants closely studied from nature were used as decoration in the borders of mira-culously iUuminated manuscripts, admired ali over Europe. Devotional Netherlandish pictures often contained a vase of flowers which had a symbolic reference to the religious scene represented. The flowers of the manuscript borders as well as those of the devo­tional pictures are forerunners of the Flemish and Dutch flower-pieces of the 17th cen­tury. I t is significant in many ways that in the years before 1600 a leading part was played by a Flemish miniature master, as a matter of fact the last great one, Georg Hoefnagel (1542-1600). He visited and worked in a huge number of European countries and became a cclebrity. He was in the service of several princes and of Emperor Rudolph I l in Prague. H e painted independent flower-pieces in the technique of miniatures, water-colour on parchment, true miracles of intimate observation of plants and insects and of the finest sensitivity.

Fig. 1 shows an exquisite flower-piece by Hoefnagel, signed in monogram and dated 1592, hitherto unknown to research. I n 1961 it turned up in a sale in I ta ly . I t is at present the earliest k n o w n dated independent Flemish or D u t c h flower-piece, predecess-ing the same master's flower-piece in the Ashmolean Museum at O x f o r d by t w o years. However i t is documented that Hoefnagel painted an independent flower-piece at the latest already in 1589 (Bergstròm, 1956, p . 38, figs 35 A and B). I t seems highly likely that severely symmetrical flower-pieces of this type, by Hoefnagel or some fol lower , inspired Orsola Maddalena Caccia (Fig . 2) (that the composition has a certain Flemish character has been pointed out already by Renato Rol i i n : Napol i , 1964, p . 25) .

A famous flower-painter of the next generation was Jan Breughel (1568-1625), w h o worked for Cardinal Federico Borromeo in M i l a n . The fine results are st i l i to be admir­ed in the Ambrosiana. The most br i l l iant p u p i l of Jan Breughel was Daniel Seghers (1590-1661), the painting Jesuit, whose garlands and vases of f lowers were spread ali over Europe and highly demanded l ike the paintings of the Dutch Jan van H u y s u m a hundred years Iater (see cat. nr 28) . Seghers stayed i n Rome 1625-27 and then painted the Louvre garland of flowers in which Domenichino has made the centre group (Fig. 3) Napol i , 1964, cat. nr 124).

Flemish 17th century art was dominated by Rubens. H e settled the ideals for a large section of Flemish st i l l - l i fe painting. H i s inspiration is strongly felt in the works of his collaborator Frans Snyders (see cat. nr 14), whose sti l l - l i fe paintings (Fig. 4) m i r r o r the Rubens style. A large part of Snyders's w o r k consists of large canvases for princely or patrician rooms, created w i t h a desire in a true baroque spirit to overwhelm the specta-tor. The master had a Flemish predilection for br ight , strong, greasy colours. The fruits are turgent and juicy, the metal shines and the w a r m blood of life itself seems to pulse

w i t h i n the human figures or animals in lively action, which often form part of his sti l l-life compositions.

A most striking feature of 17th century st i l l - l i fe in H O L L A N D is its unrivalled richness i n masters and works. I n this respect no other country approaches even the neighbour-hood of i t . There were hundreds of masters of stilleven w h o have by many of these numerous pictures come down to us.

I n the 17th century painting was i n the main supported by the whole of the Dutch people, who bought the pictures. Thus these got spread in a most perfect democratic order, a unique phenomenon. A r t was to a great extent coloured by protestant ideals, often of a moralising character.

The average standards of painting were astonishingly high, due to faets such as a solid unbroken naturalistic and craftsmanlike tradit ion since the days of the Van Evck bro¬thers, and to the high degree of specialising by the masters. This is true also when the greatest are considered. Rembrandt i n his universality forms an exception. But Vermeer is just such a specialist on genre motifs , fetched f r o m the clean every-day surroundings of the burghers of the small and ancient t o w n of D e l f t . Only rarely d id he paint another k ind of subject.

This is true as wel l of the D u t c h 17th century masters of sti l l- l i fe. The painters specia-lised in f lower- or f rui t -paint ing, in representing tables of repasts {ontbijtjes) or banquets, i n dead birds, in game-pieces, in vanitas-picimes, in compositions of precious vessels and so on. The types were comparatively fixed and separated f rom each other. Some painters devoted themselves to just one of these subjects, others to perhaps t w o or three. Another characteristic is that we can discern a production of st i l l - l i fe , typical of this or that city, of Middelburgh, Utrecht, Haarlem or Amsterdam etc.

A w o r k Iike The Roemer and the Pewter Disk (Fig. 5) of 1630 by Willem Claesz. Meda (1593/94-1680/82) displays a purely national Dutch character. The content is very simple but the realisation is r ich i n painterly observation of light and atmosphere and in sensitivity.

I n a way Willem Kalf (1619-93) i n his composition reproduced (Fig. 6) forms a contrast. I t shows most precious, exquisite vessels of arts and crafts. However, also these are conceived w i t h intimate observation of the play of light and atmosphere in the richest painterly way and quite w i t h i n the D u t c h tradit ion. KalPs art is related to that of Rem­brandt, not only in its technique but also i n its deep mystique feeling.

17th century I T A L Y was rich in masters of st i l l - l i fe , a number of which of true great-ness: Jacopo Chimenti, called l'Empoli (1551-1640), Caravaggio (1573-1610, Vincen­zo Campi (1530-1591), Panfilo Nuvolone (att. 1581-1631 ), Fede Galizia ( 1578-1630), Guido Cagnacci (1601-63), Evaristo Baschenis (1607-77), Paolo Porpora (1617-73),

Giuseppe Recto (1634-95), Giuseppe Ruoppolo (?-1701). For a survey of the great part plaved bv Italy in the orchestra of 17th century European stil l- l ife it might be referred to the exhibition catalogues of Naples in 1964 and of Bergamo in 1968.

After the death of Durer in 1528 painting in G E R M A N Y displayed a ccrtain decline, accelerating in the fol lowing century. Certainly, the disasters of the th ir ty years war offered no favorable climate to the arts. Mediocre artists were active, surpassed only by a few who were thus exceptionai. Among these is a small number of sti l l- l ife painters, who forni a group ol high importance to German art of the period, some of them m a i l ­ing the finest masters in the field of other countries.

The earlv history is connected w i t h the strong stream of Flemish religious and politicai refugees of the second hall ot the 16th century, directed especially to Frankfurt-on-the-Main. Among these were numerous artists. Georg Hoefnagel (see above) visited Frank­furt in the first half of the fifteen-nineties. His presence and his works were of fonda­menta] importance to the first German st i lMife master of the 17th century, Georg flegel (1566-1638; see cai. nr 38), especially in the latter's capacity as flower-painter (Fig. 7) . Flegel is one of the finest Stilleben painters in Europe of the period. His painting has intimicy, minuteness and force at the same time. Tris works of the Cologne master Gottfried von Wedig (1583-1641) have much in common w i t h those of Flegel, indicat-ing a direct connexion between them and keep a vcry high leve! as wel l (Fig . 8).

In the second half of the century Hamburg bec:>me a centre of sti l l- l ife painting. Among the masters is Georg Hintz (active 1666-1700). H e was influenced by Amsterdam pain­ters like Kalf and Van Streeck but transformed their themer.. The elements of the com-position are much more scattered over the surface of the table, the forms are thinner and. like Flegel, H i n t z showed a German faste in his choice and combination of colours.

I t is wel l -known that the art of S P A I N was, dur ing long periods of its history, under the doublé influence of I ta ly and Flanders. But, to a quite rcmarkable extent, the foreign impulses received were alloyed into something of a quite Spanish character. This discloscs the strength of the national t radi t ion and is true also of the bodegones of the 17th century, which as wel l were influenced by Flemish, Dutch and Italian painting.

In the works of Juan Sànchez Cotàn {1 560/61-1627) Spanish sti l l - l i fe appears in perfect shape at a vcry early period, that is in the years about 1600 (Fig. 9) . Already then its essential, most precious qualities are prcsent: the intense naturalism, the noble severity and the strong mystique feeling.

The first th i rd of the 17th century is the finest and richest f lowering period of bode­gones painting, when Velazquez and Zurbaràn (see cat. nr 54) as we l l contributed to its glory. About two hundred vears later Spanish st i l l - l i fe painting, as unexpectedly as it started w i t h Sanchez Cotan, was to reach a new peak w i t h Goya (see cat. nr 44) .

For very long it was the officia] 17th century art of FRANGE that was really known and admired, the arts in the servìce ol the absolute kingdom, the state and the church. rhcv had a lunction ol propaganda, of glorif ication, using much allegory and rhetoric. That there was another kind of French art was emphasised by the exhibit ion Les pein-tres de la réalité en Fra/ice an XVIIe siècle, organised by Sterling in Paris in 1934. l i contained a small section of sti l l- l ife and their masters became known io the public practically for the first l ime. Among these may he mentioned early ones as Jacques Linard (1600-45) (Fig. IO), Louise Moillon (see cat. nr 60) and Lubin Mangili (about 1610-63), who have since then become famous. These artists had Flemish and Duich masters for their models. They displayed a predilection for exactitude and restraint, for well balanced composition, and for a refìned treatment of colour which , ali taken toge-ther, may communicate an expression of French taste and spirit .

In the second half of the century a number of French sl i l l - l i fc painters were mobilised to produce works to form part of the interior dccomtions of the palaces of Louis X I V and the aristocracy. They painted pictures to be inserted into the wainscot or to he used as soj»\i porle. The motifs were often trophy groups, of arms or ot for insiancc the liberal arts, or of hunting utensils and game, or more purely decorative canvases of flowers and f r u i t . These compositions were to enhance the splendour ol the room and the grandeur of its inhabitants.

The painting of trophy groups and relatcd motifs flourished during the French I 8 t h century. At the same time another, more intimale, more bourgeois type of sti l l- l ife was painted, one source ol inspiration of which was art of the previous century, Dutch , Flemish, French. But the impressions were transformed according lo the demands ol a new time and taste. Some painters devoted themselves to both types, for instance Jean-Baptis/e Siméon Chardin (1699-1799) and Anne Vallayer-Coster (see cat. nr 62). The French 18th centurv was much richer in masters and works of nature morte than the preceding one, in which both are comparatively scarce.

Thus the masters of Flanders, Hol land, I taly , Germany, Spain and Francc have con-tributed considerably to European sti l l - l i fe in the 17th century. But the genre had a few representatives also in other countries. Among those may be mentioned SwiTZER-

L A N D , w i t h Joseph Plepp (1595-1642) and Albrecht Kauw (1621-81), PORTUGAL,

w i t h Josepha de Ayala (see cat. nr 41 ) and furthermore a few countries receiving guest-artists, mostly of Dutch or Flemish or ig in , like E N G L A N D (see cat. nr 36), S W E D E N

(see cat. nr 32) and D E N M A H K .

The leading countries in the field created styles and types of sti l l- l ife of a national character. However at the same time, as has been noted in some cases, they were also excercising influence on each others. The ways were many. Artists displaced themselves for various reasons. They carne into another country to learn or as politicai or religious refugees or just to f i m i a better market for their sti l l- l ife pictures. A n d then there was

tracie of course. Large quantities of pictures, among which numerous flower- and frui t -pieces were, for instance, exported by ship f rom A n t w e r p to Seville in the first half of the centurv, which had consequences for b:)degones painting in Spain.

This ali contributed to create interrelations between the countries mentioned. There were even certain cities where interchange over the national frontiers took place in a high degree. Some of these may be noted. Vonice, Florence and Rome were such places, whereas Naples, politically united w i t h Spain, became specially important for the exchange of models and ideas for I taly as wel l as for Spain. Frankfurt-on-the-Main and its colony of Flemish artists has already been mentioned. Paris had its centres of Flemish artists, among which some Dutch, in the quarters of Saint-Germain-dcs-Prcs et Saint-I l ippolytc .

Some of the 20th century high esteem of the sti l l - l i fe painting of the 17th can be said originally to be due to a mistake. Enthusiasts of the l'art pour l'art theory thought that the old Dutch and Flemish genre pieces and stillcvens as a m i e depicted every-day Iife and surroundings without other than purely artistic aspirations. As to large parts of genre-painting it has been shown that a i emblematical moralising meaning has hrequently been included (see for instance Gudlaugsson, 1938; Rudolph, 1938; Kauff-mann, 1943; Bauch, 1956; Monroy , 1964; De Jongh, 1967).

As a matter of fact the same is true of larg * parts of 17th century sti l l - l i fe as w e l l , parti-cularly in Hol land and Flanders, where vanitas significance is frequently impl ied . A few instances w i l l be studied in the fo l lowing (the ideas are set for th more at length in Bergstròm, 1955; Bergstròm, Vanitas, 1970; Bergstròm, De Gheyn, 1970, ali w i t h references to l i t terature) .

Already in the 16th century and especially at Haarlem appeared a number of engraved allegories on vanitas. A vase of flowers may often f o r m part of the content and an accompanying text explains that the f lowers, of short durat ion, are an image of human Iife, of quick transience.

When independent flower-pieces were painted in the 17th century, these more often than generally believed expressed the same mcssage. O n manv occasions the allusion to this may be very unconspicuous.

I n the wonderful l i t t le picture of 1607 by Ambrosius Bosschaert the Elder in the Count A . Cicogna Collection, Mi lano (Fig. 11) the flowers are f u l l - b l o w n , a demonstration that they have only a short time to l ive : a rose has Iost ali its petals and there are fallen petals on the table. Furthermore there is a f ly sitt ing on the table to the r ight . This comparatively unpleasant insect appears frequenti} ' in the flower-pieces by the Elder Bosschaert and the painters, w h o gathered around h i m . I t is a particular symbol of decay, of decomposition, the fly being attracted by things p u t r i f y i n g . O f t e n a specimen can be seen in vanitas s t i l l - l i fe , resting on a human skull (confer Fig. 13).

Also Flegel's vase of flowers in the Broughton Collection (Fig. 7) has a vanitas signi-ficance. This is quite obvious f rom the decoration of the silver vase w i t h among other things the representation of a skull and bones and the inscription: M E M E N T O M O R I

i n numerous flower-pieces the vase stands on a stone slab or in a niche which is damaged, w i t h cracks and pieces fallen off . This is a way to illustrate that nothing belonging w i t h i n the terrestrial sphere, not even hard stone, can resist destruction. The symbolic content is obvious in a picture of about 1630 by a Dutch master belonging to the circle of Pieter Claesz. (Fig. 12). The skull already most effectively preaches memento mori. Furthermore there is a verse ( in Dutch) :

« The glass is empty. Time is gone.

Light is out . Man is dumb ».

The objects i l lustrating this are respectivel/ the turned over glass, the watch, the candle w i t h its smoking wick and the skul l .

The glass, empty or f i l l ed , is a frequenti} ' occurring symbol of pleasures and passtimes and more specifically of taste. Thus, tcgether w i t h the fiasco i t represents taste in Jacques Linard's representation of the f ive senses (Fig. 10), which has stili another underlaying vanitas stratum, that of transience. I n a French vanitas picture (Fig. 13) of about 1640 (?) there are symbols of four of the f ive senses (that of taste seems to be lacking). Furthermore the book represented is opened on a page, the head-lines of which read: « Le tombeau des plaisirs, de l'odorai ». Smeli is symbolised by the vase of flowers which certainly like others of the objects depicted carries a doublé significance, in this case that of transience (confer above). The coins for instance represent touch but at the same time terrestrial riches which i t is vain to collect. Note the f ly on the skull (confer above and Fig. 11).

The watch to be seen in the right foreground of Willem Kalf's picture (Fig. 6) is a vanitas accent, alluding to time that is inevitably passing and thus to the vanity o l collecting precious things. I n pictures of this type Kalf has now and then introduced a f r u i t showing the dark spots of rottening or damaged by, worms - another way to express the idea of transience. Exactly the same element may be found, quite conspi-cuously placed, i n compositions of musical instruments by Evaristo Baschenis and cer­tainly w i t h the same meaning. One instance is formed by his picture in the Brera Gallery, M i l a n (Fig. 14), where a rottening peach rests upon a book. I n the main, allusions to transience, to the brevity of Iife are many in the works by this painter-priest of Bergamo.

Another element of the picture by Baschenis appears to have relevance to the topic here studied. O n the swelling body of the Iute dust is resting, painted in the most admirable way. I t is as if somebody had passed t w o or three of his finger-tips right over the instru-

meni taking rows of dust away, thus making the remainder stand out the more effec-tivelv. Dust is a basic biblica! symbol of the nothingness of M a n : « ... for ali is vanity. AH go unto one place; ali are of the dust and turn to dust again » (Eccl. I l i , 18-19).

There are stil i people, brought up w i t h i n the sphere and the ideas of l'art pour l'art, who get unhappy when a symbolic meaning is established in a genre piece or a sti l l - l i fe picture they loved. The w o r k of art is then no more what they thought i t was. T o them it has acquired a quality of « impur i ty » which they regret.

However, lookcd upon the other way, the revelation of a symbolical meaning embodied in a picture helps to grasp the conditions under which i t was created and what the painter and his public felt and thought. Thus i t helps us to a better conception of the work of art in ali its complexity. A symbolical significance present cannot affect or reduce the high abstract qualities of form and colour in a painting of, Iet us say, Kal f , Baschenis, Linard or Vermeer van D e l f t .