Composition and fundamental principles

STILL LIFE

• A still life is a work of art depicting mostly inanimate subject matter, typically commonplace objects which may be either natural (food, flowers, dead animals, plants, rocks, or shells) or man-made (drinking glasses, books, vases, jewelry, coins, pipes, and so on).

• It’s origins are found in the Middle Ages and Ancient Graeco-Roman art, but still-life painting emerged as a distinct genre and professional specialization in Western painting by the late 16th century, and has remained significant since then.

• Still life gives the artist more freedom in the arrangement of elements within a composition than do paintings of other types of subjects such as landscape or portraiture. Early still-life paintings, particularly before 1700, often contained religious and allegorical symbolism relating to the objects depicted.

STILL LIFE

1600-1700

1700-1800

1800-1900

20TH CENTURY

20TH CENTURY

CHARCOAL STILL LIFE DRAWINGS