Still Life with Drinking-Horn Poster

This poster features Kalf's Still Life with Drinking-Horn.

The drinking-horn in this still life was made of a single buffalo horn set into a silver mount which features Saint Sebastian, patron saint of archers, who was bound to a tree as a target for two Roman soldiers. It dates from 1565 and is kept today in the Amsterdam Historisch Museum. The horn suggests that the painting was probably commissioned by a member of the Amsterdam archers' guild.

The artist has chosen the objects shown for their magnificent colour and texture. The sparkle of the lobster, the gleam of the lemon, the subtle texture of the carpet, all demonstrate the play of light over different surfaces. A contemporary viewer would have recognised the objects as expensive luxury items that only the wealthy would have been able to afford.

Still Life with Drinking-Horn by Willem Kalf was the focus of the Take One Picture schools course, 2011/12. Take One Picture looks at ways of using paintings in the classroom as a starting point for delivering many areas of the National Curriculum. This principle aligns closely with the DCSF Primary National Strategy: Excellence and Enjoyment, which supports a holistic approach to the curriculum by exploiting the links between subject areas.