The Magic of Things: Still Life Painting 1500-1800

There seems to be an endless number of deceptively real objects depicted in still life: dewdrops on fragile flower petals, reflections of light on glass goblets and precious silver dishes, candied sweets in Chinese porcelain, the fine hairs on a peach, the soft feathers of a songbird, the sallow tinge to a skull.

However, the details of still life paintings are not exhausted in the delicate rendering of varying surfaces, because each pictorial element can also symbolize religious or moral content or be a reference to the irretrievability of time gone by!

This still life book presents, on large-format plates, a splendid selection of works by some of the principal masters of the still life genre, such as Jan Brueghel the Elder, Georg Flegel, Sebastian Stoskopff, Jan Davidsz de Heem, Abraham Mignon, and Jean Simeon Chardin.

These choice treasures of German, Netherlandish, Flemish, and French still life painting exemplify nearly all of the different ways of playing with this genre.

This art history book is one of many art books available from the National Gallery, which include art history books, art exhibition catalogues and gift books.