Reimaging seventeenth-century Dutch still life: a transformation into contemporary painting

Abstract

This research project reads seventeenth century Dutch still life through the lens of a contemporary painting practice. I contribute to the field of traditional seventeenth-century Dutch still life by activating a different form of perception, one developed through a practical model of looking, thinking and painting. I investigate how still life paintings are intelligent constructions that combine nuanced compositional structures and represented objects. This combination of composition and representation differs in focus and methods between subgenres, and these differences are at the core of this research.

The contribution of this research lies in the crafting of a complex methodology comprising three parts: positing a new way of looking at the tradition; writing about the paintings; and making contemporary paintings. Through this methodological approach, I argue that specific compositional and painterly features are typical within different subgenres of traditional still life paintings. I consider these features essential elements that distinguish different styles within the greater genre, and further, I propose that these subgenres of still life each have a distinguishing ‘modality’, both in how they are constructed and presented as paintings. The term ‘modality’ in this project refers to the relationship between several inseparable parts, or modes, of the painting at once.

Three bodies of paintings coincide with the chapters in the thesis, each focusing on a subgenre of still life painting: floral, pronk and hunting trophies. I consider key paintings for each subgenre and perform formal analysis combined with object analysis. I propose that floral paintings involve the mirroring of time and dimensionality; pronk paintings comprise vibrating channels of intensity; and hunting trophy paintings involve ‘monster-scapes’ of texture and friction.

I present new knowledge of still life by making paintings and re-examining the work of others from the perspective of a practitioner. My knowledge is offered in order that others may understand not only the historical genre of Dutch still life differently, but can engage with still life paintings as ‘thinking images’, rich with objects and relations.