Still life in painting: types and description

Still life in painting - images of static non-living objects, united in a single ensemble. The still life can be presented as an independent canvas, but sometimes it becomes part of the composition of the genre scene or the whole picture.

What is a still life?

Such painting is expressed in the subjective attitude of man to the world. This shows the master's understanding of beauty, which becomes the embodiment of social values and the aesthetic ideal of time. The still life in painting gradually transformed into a separate significant genre. This process took more than one hundred years, and each new generation of artists understood canvases and color according to the trends of the era.

The role of still life in the composition of the picture is never confined to simple information, a random addition to the main content. Depending on historical conditions and public requests, subjects can take more or less active part in creating a composition or hotel image, obscuring one or another goal. Still life in painting as an independent genre is designed to reliably convey the beauty of things that surround a person daily.

Sometimes a separate detail or element suddenly acquires a deep meaning, it gets its own meaning and sound.

History

As an old and revered genre, still life in painting knew ups and dizzying falls. Austere, ascetic and minimalist Byzantine style helped to create immortal monumental generalized lofty-heroic images. Sculptors with extraordinary expressiveness enjoyed the image of individual objects. Types of still life in painting and all sorts of classifications originated in the period of the formation of art history, although the canvases existed long before the writing of the first textbook.

Icon painting traditions and still lifes

In the ancient Russian iconography, a great role was played by those few things that the artist dared to bring into strict laconicism of canonical works. They promote the manifestation of everything direct and demonstrate the expression of feelings in a work devoted to an abstract or mythological plot.

Kinds of still-life in painting exist separately from the icon-painting works, although the strict canon does not forbid the image of certain objects inherent in the genre.

Renaissance still life

Nevertheless, a great role is played by works of the XV-XVI centuries in the Renaissance. Painter for the first time drew attention to the world around him, sought to determine the significance of each element in the service of mankind.

Modern painting, still life as a popular and beloved genre originated in the period of Tricento. Household items have acquired a certain nobility and the importance of the owner to whom they served. On large canvases, the still life, as a rule, looks very modest and discreetly - a glass jar with water, silver elegant vases or delicate lilies on thin stems often huddled in the dark corner of the picture, like poor and forgotten relatives.

Nevertheless, in the image of beautiful and intimate things there was so much love in a poetic form that modern painting, still life and its role in it already timidly looked through the gaps of landscapes and the heavy curtains of genre scenes.

Crucial moment

The subjects received a real element in the paintings and a new meaning in the 17th century - in an era when the still-life with flowers dominated and dominated. Painting of this kind has gained numerous admirers among the nobility and the clergy. In complex compositions with a pronounced literary plotline, the scenes received their place along with the main characters. Analyzing the works of the era, it is easy to see that the important role of still life was similarly manifested in literature, theater and sculpture. Things began to "act" and "live" in these works - they were shown as the main characters, showing the best and most profitable aspects of objects.

Objects of art made by hardworking and talented craftsmen bear a personal imprint of the thoughts, desires, drives of the concrete person. Still life with flowers, painting is better than all psychological tests help to track the psycho-emotional state and achieve inner harmony and integrity.

Things faithfully serve a man, taking his delight with objects of everyday life and inspiring owners to acquire new beautiful, elegant trifles.

Flemish Renaissance

Painting gouache, still life as a genre people did not immediately. The history of the appearance, development and widespread introduction of various ideas and principles serves as a reminder of the constant development of thought. The still life became famous and became fashionable in the middle of the 17th century. The life line of the genre began in the Netherlands, the bright and festive Flanders, where nature itself has to beauty and fun.

Gouache paintings, still lifes blossomed in the time of grandiose changes, the complete change of political, social and religious institutions.

Flanders Current

The bourgeois direction of the development of Flanders has become a novelty and progress for the whole of Europe. Changes in political life led to similar innovations in culture - the horizons opened to artists were no longer limited to religious prohibitions and were not supported by appropriate traditions.

Still life as a genre of painting became the flagship of a new art that sang all natural, bright and beautiful. The strict canons of Catholicism no longer held back the flight of imagination and the curiosity of the painters, and so, along with art, science and technology began to develop.

Ordinary household things and objects, previously considered low-lying and unworthy of mention, suddenly ascended to the objects of close study. Decorative painting, still life and landscapes have become a real mirror of life - everyday routine, diet, culture, ideas about the beautiful.

Genre properties

It was from here, from the conscious, in-depth study of the surrounding world, that a separate genre of everyday painting, landscape, still-life developed.

Art, gained certain canons in the 17th century, determined the main quality of the genre. The picture, dedicated to the world of things, describes the basic properties inherent in the objects that surround a person, shows the attitude of the master and his hypothetical contemporary to what is shown, expresses the nature and completeness of knowledge about reality. The artist necessarily conveyed the material existence of things, their volume, weight, texture, color, functional purpose of everyday objects and their vital connection with human activity.

Problems and problems of still life

Decorative painting, still life and everyday scenes absorbed the new trends of the era - the departure from the canons and the simultaneous preservation of conservative naturalism images.

The still life of the revolutionary era of the times of the complete victory of the bourgeoisie reflects the artist's respect for new forms of the national life of his compatriots, respect for the work of ordinary artisans, worship of beautiful images of beauty.

The problems and tasks of the genre formulated in the 17th century were not generally discussed in European schools until the middle of the 19th century. Meanwhile, artists constantly set themselves new and new tasks, and did not continue to mechanically reproduce ready-made composite solutions and color schemes.

Modern canvases

Photo of still lifes for painting, prepared in modern studios, clearly demonstrate the difference between the perception of the world by a contemporary and a man of the Middle Ages. The dynamics of objects today exceeds all conceivable limits, and the statics of objects was the norm for that time. Color combinations of the 17th century are distinguished by brightness and purity of color. Saturated shades harmoniously fit into the composition and emphasize the idea and idea of the artist. The absence of any canons did not best influence the still lifes of the 20th and 21st centuries, sometimes affecting their imagination by their unattractiveness or deliberate variegation.

Methods for solving the problems of still life are changing rapidly every decade, methods and techniques do not keep pace with the imagination of recognized and not very skilled craftsmen.

The value of today's paintings is the expression of reality through the eyes of contemporary artists; Through the incarnation on the canvas, new worlds arise that will be able to tell a lot about their creators to the people of the future.

The influence of impressionism

Impressionism became the next milestone in the history of still lifes. The whole evolution of the direction was reflected in the compositions through colors, technique and understanding of space. The last romantics of the millennium brought life to the canvas, as it is - quick, bright strokes and expressive details became the cornerstones of the style.

Painting, still lifes of contemporary artists certainly bear the imprint of the Impressionist inspirers through the color, methods and techniques of the image.

A departure from the standard canons of classicism - the three plans, the central composition and historical heroes - allowed artists to develop their own perception of color and light, and also to demonstrate and demonstrate the free flight of emotions to viewers.

The main tasks of the Impressionists are to change the picturesque technique and the psychological content of the picture. And even today, knowing the situation of that era, it is difficult to find the right answer to the question of why impressionistic landscapes, as joyful and unsophisticated as poetry, evoked sharp rejection and rude ridicule of picky critics and the enlightened public.

Impressionist painting did not fit into the framework of the generally accepted, so still lives and landscapes were perceived as something vulgar, unworthy of recognition along with other scum of high art.

The art exhibition, which became a kind of missionary activity for famous artists of the time, was able to reach out to the hearts and demonstrate the beauty and grace of unusual paintings. Images of objects and objects by all available means became commonplace even in the walls of formidable institutions that profess only the principles of classical art. The triumphant march of still lifes has not stopped since the end of the 19th century, and the variety of genres and techniques today allows not to be afraid of any experiments with color, textures and materials.