0:00:08 > 0:00:11One thing modern life is not short of is imagery.
0:00:12 > 0:00:14We are bombarded by the fast-cut,
0:00:14 > 0:00:18quick-moving symbols of advertising and media.
0:00:18 > 0:00:19It's everywhere we look.
0:00:21 > 0:00:24But the story of still life is not about looking,
0:00:24 > 0:00:25it's about seeing.
0:00:36 > 0:00:41Still life asks us to stop and consider the world anew.
0:00:45 > 0:00:49Our impulse to take pleasure in the simple things of everyday life
0:00:49 > 0:00:52stretches back into the depth of time.
0:00:56 > 0:01:00Throughout history, artists have used still life to help us
0:01:00 > 0:01:01understand the beauty of nature...
0:01:04 > 0:01:07..and value the material world we have created around us.
0:01:12 > 0:01:15The story of still life is an astonishing tale
0:01:15 > 0:01:17of how the depiction of humble things
0:01:17 > 0:01:21was relegated to the bottom of art's hierarchy...
0:01:23 > 0:01:25..yet rose to play the key role
0:01:25 > 0:01:27in some of art's most revolutionary moments.
0:01:32 > 0:01:36And today, it lives on in unexpected ways.
0:01:55 > 0:01:59Almost anything has got aesthetic qualities.
0:01:59 > 0:02:02There are many more beautiful things than
0:02:02 > 0:02:06we give credence to in our day-to-day lives.
0:02:08 > 0:02:11When we think about what happiness really entails,
0:02:11 > 0:02:15it often is about an appreciation of the moment,
0:02:15 > 0:02:18and of things that are right in front of our eyes,
0:02:18 > 0:02:21and things that are, in a way, quite ordinary.
0:02:21 > 0:02:24And still life helps us with that.
0:02:24 > 0:02:29In a way, still life is the most demanding genre of art to take
0:02:29 > 0:02:33seriously because it doesn't have any of the obvious signs of importance.
0:02:33 > 0:02:37How artists depict the world helps us to decide what
0:02:37 > 0:02:41we think of as valuable, and what we neglect and demean.
0:02:51 > 0:02:56The story of this intriguing genre is intertwined with religion,
0:02:56 > 0:02:58politics and wealth.
0:02:59 > 0:03:02Depicting a mere object might seem the simplest
0:03:02 > 0:03:04and most obvious form of art.
0:03:06 > 0:03:08But it's a practice the greatest names
0:03:08 > 0:03:10have always been drawn towards.
0:03:13 > 0:03:14But how do you define it?
0:03:15 > 0:03:18What actually constitutes a work of still life?
0:03:27 > 0:03:29The four basic elements that an artist is going to be
0:03:29 > 0:03:32looking for when they are composing a still life is that, first,
0:03:32 > 0:03:34they are going to choose their objects,
0:03:34 > 0:03:36then they are going to place them in space -
0:03:36 > 0:03:39because the space is just as important as the object,
0:03:39 > 0:03:42and then they are going to consider their lighting,
0:03:42 > 0:03:45and last of all, they will think about the framing, how the
0:03:45 > 0:03:48total composition actually works within the height
0:03:48 > 0:03:50and width of the finished image.
0:03:54 > 0:03:58It's a painting of everything within arm's reach.
0:03:58 > 0:04:00It's everything that's touchable,
0:04:00 > 0:04:04it's everything that you could lift with your hand.
0:04:04 > 0:04:07It's about a manual, and gestural space.
0:04:09 > 0:04:12One peculiarity of still life painting is that, by and large,
0:04:12 > 0:04:16the world stops at the far edge of the table, it just ends.
0:04:16 > 0:04:19You do not even ask why. It is so cleverly done, you don't
0:04:19 > 0:04:21even think... "They're censoring this,
0:04:21 > 0:04:23"what have they got beyond the table?"
0:04:27 > 0:04:30It's far more interested in the tactile world,
0:04:30 > 0:04:33and the interplay between things that you... Dare I touch this glass?
0:04:33 > 0:04:36Things that you lift and are used to, and you get
0:04:36 > 0:04:38so used to that you don't see them any more.
0:04:38 > 0:04:42So, one of the things that European still life gets into is,
0:04:42 > 0:04:45supposing this is about the objects that are so familiar
0:04:45 > 0:04:48and everyone's got them, so much so that you never look at them.
0:04:48 > 0:04:52It's a sort of re-enchantment of the things that are overlooked,
0:04:52 > 0:04:56that are so taken for granted that you don't see them any more.
0:04:57 > 0:04:59Well, literally, a still life painting is
0:04:59 > 0:05:02a painting of inanimate objects, but it clearly is not adequate
0:05:02 > 0:05:06because any still life painting from the middle of the 17th century
0:05:06 > 0:05:10is likely to have beetles and bugs and snails and live animals
0:05:10 > 0:05:12so the term itself is only approximate.
0:05:43 > 0:05:45During the Italian Renaissance,
0:05:45 > 0:05:49the ancient city of Milan was one of the world's key centres of art
0:05:49 > 0:05:53and learning. Among the many treasures still to be found here
0:05:53 > 0:05:56is one deceptively simple painting that is of vital
0:05:56 > 0:05:58importance in the story of still life.
0:06:07 > 0:06:10We are in the Pinacoteca Ambrosiana.
0:06:10 > 0:06:15Its origins go back to the donation made by Cardinal Federico Borromeo
0:06:15 > 0:06:19in 1618 when he decided to donate his private collection
0:06:19 > 0:06:21to the Ambrosiana,
0:06:21 > 0:06:24thus founding the oldest museum in Milan.
0:06:24 > 0:06:29Although the collection is not a huge collection as such,
0:06:29 > 0:06:33nevertheless, we have amazing masterpieces.
0:06:34 > 0:06:39The Pinacoteca has many very important masterpieces
0:06:39 > 0:06:44but definitely, there is one which deserves special attention.
0:06:58 > 0:07:03Here is the famous basket of fruit by Caravaggio
0:07:03 > 0:07:07which is surely one of the most important pieces of our collection.
0:07:39 > 0:07:43The painting is one of the most fascinating, beautiful,
0:07:43 > 0:07:47enigmatic, important works of art, not only in the history
0:07:47 > 0:07:51of still life painting but in the whole of European art.
0:07:51 > 0:07:54It looks, for all the world, like a commonplace basket of fruit,
0:07:54 > 0:07:57and yet it is painted with a realism, with an intensity,
0:07:57 > 0:08:02a sense of detail, and immediacy that certainly is unparalleled.
0:08:04 > 0:08:07And historically, of course, in this painting, Caravaggio has
0:08:07 > 0:08:11painted the very first known still life painting of a basket of fruit.
0:08:14 > 0:08:18When this work was first created, the people at that time had never
0:08:18 > 0:08:19seen anything like it.
0:08:21 > 0:08:23The basket of fruit is recognised
0:08:23 > 0:08:26as the first major work of Western still life.
0:08:29 > 0:08:33It was painted in 1596 by the infamous artist,
0:08:33 > 0:08:35Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio.
0:08:37 > 0:08:40And by doing something seemingly obvious as depicting a simple
0:08:40 > 0:08:44basket of fruit, Caravaggio had written a new chapter
0:08:44 > 0:08:46in art history.
0:08:48 > 0:08:52Caravaggio was a rather dark character, very ambitious
0:08:52 > 0:08:56and when he was 21 he paints his only still life painting.
0:08:57 > 0:09:01It's a basket of fruit that wants to be something else.
0:09:01 > 0:09:04It wants to be a painting about life and death,
0:09:04 > 0:09:11and resurrection and salvation and whether you can achieve such a thing.
0:09:11 > 0:09:13Caravaggio is a man full of doubt
0:09:13 > 0:09:15and I think that doubt is in that painting.
0:09:18 > 0:09:23The forms that he makes are all extremely imperfect.
0:09:23 > 0:09:27There isn't anything that hasn't been ravaged by a worm or a bug
0:09:27 > 0:09:33or some kind of foliage disease because Caravaggio loves things
0:09:33 > 0:09:35when they are imperfect and damaged.
0:09:36 > 0:09:39The symbolism in the painting is quite highly charged.
0:09:39 > 0:09:42The apples are conspicuously worm-eaten
0:09:42 > 0:09:47and they are meant to bring to mind the apple from which Eve ate,
0:09:47 > 0:09:50which condemned man to sin, death and time.
0:09:53 > 0:09:56And their counterpoint is the vine leaves
0:09:56 > 0:10:00which stand for Christ and they stand for the wine
0:10:00 > 0:10:04that is Christ's blood that saves us from death.
0:10:04 > 0:10:08The painting is about death, the worm-eaten apple and the hope for
0:10:08 > 0:10:10eternal life divine,
0:10:10 > 0:10:14and yet Caravaggio always leaves space for doubt.
0:10:14 > 0:10:16Some of the vine leaves have begun to
0:10:16 > 0:10:20wither and they seem almost to have turned into hands, gesturing,
0:10:20 > 0:10:24reaching for salvation as if salvation isn't, in fact, certain.
0:10:24 > 0:10:28And the whole basket of fruit teeters on the edge of the ledge as
0:10:28 > 0:10:29if about to fall.
0:10:32 > 0:10:35It's a picture that's got so much in embryo of what makes him
0:10:35 > 0:10:36an extraordinary artist.
0:10:36 > 0:10:39It's one of the great paintings in the world.
0:10:51 > 0:10:54Caravaggio's still life resurrected one of the most popular and
0:10:54 > 0:10:56fascinating of art's disciplines.
0:10:56 > 0:10:59The impact of the work can only really be
0:10:59 > 0:11:02understood in the context of what had come before.
0:11:03 > 0:11:09With his humble subject, dedication to realism and sublime technique,
0:11:09 > 0:11:12Caravaggio had revived a genre of painting lost since antiquity.
0:11:20 > 0:11:24In ancient Egypt, large-scale tomb paintings have been discovered
0:11:24 > 0:11:26that contain elements familiar to still life.
0:11:33 > 0:11:37Again, Ancient Greek art also depicted simple objects that
0:11:37 > 0:11:39point towards the genre.
0:11:42 > 0:11:45But the finest examples of the ancient world's still life
0:11:45 > 0:11:49wouldn't be revealed until a discovery in the mid-18th century.
0:11:56 > 0:12:01From under the ash of Pompeii, early excavations of the site
0:12:01 > 0:12:04uncovered 2,000-year-old Roman still life frescoes.
0:12:10 > 0:12:14There are interesting examples in Roman arts of paintings of fruit
0:12:14 > 0:12:17and fish and water and jugs of wine,
0:12:17 > 0:12:21and these are described as works of Xenia art.
0:12:21 > 0:12:25Now, Xenia is a fantastic, ancient Greek word and means a kind of
0:12:25 > 0:12:28guest-host friendship or the gifts that are given
0:12:28 > 0:12:30between guests and hosts.
0:12:30 > 0:12:32The Xenia paintings aren't just pretty things,
0:12:32 > 0:12:35they are not just there to show off the skill of the artist,
0:12:35 > 0:12:37they had a job of work to do.
0:12:37 > 0:12:40The Roman Empire is a massive place,
0:12:40 > 0:12:44people are travelling the whole time, there's a huge trade in goods,
0:12:44 > 0:12:47in ideas, there's a lot of political visits from diplomats,
0:12:47 > 0:12:51and I think, in some ways, the Xenia paintings are saying to the
0:12:51 > 0:12:54wider world, "we are a cosmopolitan society,
0:12:54 > 0:12:57"we accept people who travel from foreign lands,
0:12:57 > 0:13:01"and this is the kind of hospitality that you can expect from us."
0:13:03 > 0:13:06These Xenia paintings are the clearest examples of ancient
0:13:06 > 0:13:08still life that form a direct link
0:13:08 > 0:13:11with the later tradition of European work.
0:13:13 > 0:13:17Whoever painted this fresco was thinking in exactly the same way
0:13:17 > 0:13:19as artists who would come later.
0:13:22 > 0:13:27The subjects chosen are domestic. These are humble things.
0:13:29 > 0:13:32There's a range of textures on display.
0:13:35 > 0:13:38We can see a dialogue between the natural and the man-made.
0:13:42 > 0:13:45Objects overhang the edge of the table, breaking the line,
0:13:45 > 0:13:47emphasising perspective.
0:13:51 > 0:13:53Even in the earliest work in the genre,
0:13:53 > 0:13:56we can see defined rules of composition.
0:13:58 > 0:14:00And there's another link between ancient Xenia
0:14:00 > 0:14:03and still life we know today...
0:14:03 > 0:14:04The direction of light.
0:14:10 > 0:14:14So the first thing that I'm going to do is just move my hand very,
0:14:14 > 0:14:17very loosely and expressively over the surface of the paper,
0:14:17 > 0:14:21which is just making a first response to the shape and the texture
0:14:21 > 0:14:23and the size and the weight of the subject.
0:14:23 > 0:14:24Fairly soon,
0:14:24 > 0:14:27I am going to be thinking about the lighting of it because I want this
0:14:27 > 0:14:32to look three-dimensional and I am instinctively lighting from the left.
0:14:35 > 0:14:39If you go to a national gallery and have a look at a broad spectrum
0:14:39 > 0:14:43of still life, have a look at which direction the light is coming from.
0:14:44 > 0:14:46And in the majority of paintings it is going to be
0:14:46 > 0:14:48coming from the left-hand side.
0:14:52 > 0:14:56So here we have a classic example - Caravaggio's Basket Of Fruit.
0:14:56 > 0:14:59And the light is very clearly coming from the left, we can see the
0:14:59 > 0:15:04shadow just underneath the grapes, and also on this side of the basket.
0:15:04 > 0:15:07From the left. From the left.
0:15:07 > 0:15:09From the left.
0:15:09 > 0:15:12From the left. From the left.
0:15:12 > 0:15:14Perhaps it is to do with literacy.
0:15:14 > 0:15:16The fact that in the West we are learning to read
0:15:16 > 0:15:19and write, from infancy, we are dealing with text and the input
0:15:19 > 0:15:23of written information from left to right, left to right, left to right.
0:15:23 > 0:15:26It's almost as if the Western brain has been programmed to
0:15:26 > 0:15:27take in information
0:15:27 > 0:15:32and therefore to prefer the receipt of information from left to right.
0:15:34 > 0:15:37It's in the Xenia frescoes discovered at Pompeii
0:15:37 > 0:15:39we find all the emerging rules of still life.
0:15:41 > 0:15:44The genre was pioneered within Roman visual culture,
0:15:44 > 0:15:49but no matter how skilled the work or popular its appeal, still life
0:15:49 > 0:15:53was destined to be considered the lowest form of art.
0:15:54 > 0:15:56A fact one of Rome's greatest authors
0:15:56 > 0:16:01and philosophers would be quick to point out.
0:16:01 > 0:16:04Pliny the Elder was a Roman period author.
0:16:04 > 0:16:07He worked and lived in the first century AD. Very prolific,
0:16:07 > 0:16:12and his great work is the Natural History.
0:16:12 > 0:16:14It's an extraordinary undertaking.
0:16:14 > 0:16:17In a way, it is the world's first encyclopaedia.
0:16:17 > 0:16:20And why this is so significant for us
0:16:20 > 0:16:22is that there is a whole paragraph
0:16:22 > 0:16:24devoted to a discussion of still life,
0:16:24 > 0:16:29and whether still life is a higher or lower form of painting.
0:16:29 > 0:16:33In a way, Pliny is the world's first art critic
0:16:33 > 0:16:36because he's introducing a particular painter, called Peiraikos,
0:16:36 > 0:16:41who is supposed to be a splendid artist, to have extraordinary talent,
0:16:41 > 0:16:46and yet, as Pliny says, "the question is whether he debased himself
0:16:46 > 0:16:50"because he chose to paint simple and base things,"
0:16:50 > 0:16:54and he's actually got a fantastic Latin word to describe him.
0:16:54 > 0:16:56He calls him a rhyparographos,
0:16:56 > 0:17:00which means a painter of low and meanly things.
0:17:00 > 0:17:04He was successful, as Pliny says here, he obtained great glory,
0:17:04 > 0:17:08his work sold for a lot of money, and yet this is really
0:17:08 > 0:17:12marginalising still life painting, this is saying, this is not
0:17:12 > 0:17:16a higher form of the art, this is something which really is base.
0:17:18 > 0:17:22Pliny's words would set the tone on how still life would now be rated.
0:17:22 > 0:17:25It would be seen as vulgar,
0:17:25 > 0:17:28less worthy than other supposedly superior genres.
0:17:29 > 0:17:32To be practised by those artists of lower status.
0:17:34 > 0:17:37But it wasn't just marginalisation that would be the issue.
0:17:38 > 0:17:42When the Roman Empire fell, the art of still life would fall with it.
0:17:44 > 0:17:45It would vanish.
0:17:45 > 0:17:46THUNDER RUMBLES
0:18:06 > 0:18:09Europe would now enter the medieval age
0:18:09 > 0:18:12and there would be no place for painting ordinary objects.
0:18:16 > 0:18:19The period commonly referred to as medieval,
0:18:19 > 0:18:22it's over 1,000 years long.
0:18:22 > 0:18:24It starts around the fall of Rome,
0:18:24 > 0:18:30so about 400AD, and it continues right up until the Renaissance,
0:18:30 > 0:18:33you could say up until 1500 AD.
0:18:33 > 0:18:37But the defining characteristic of this period is
0:18:37 > 0:18:39the rise of Christianity,
0:18:39 > 0:18:42the all-pervasive impact of Christianity,
0:18:42 > 0:18:44particularly on visual culture.
0:18:49 > 0:18:54Christian painting had no place, really, for ordinary,
0:18:54 > 0:18:57secular objects because it was always the higher world,
0:18:57 > 0:18:59the heavenly world, the very radiant world.
0:19:04 > 0:19:09If you get an artist who's simply painting bowls of oranges or
0:19:09 > 0:19:12bunches of flowers, that is not really helping anyone, it is
0:19:12 > 0:19:15not contributing to Christian society.
0:19:19 > 0:19:23Still life doesn't actually exist in the medieval
0:19:23 > 0:19:26period as a specific artistic genre.
0:19:26 > 0:19:29You don't get objects in isolation,
0:19:29 > 0:19:32they tend to function as symbols or attributes.
0:19:32 > 0:19:35So, for example, the apple - if you saw a painting,
0:19:35 > 0:19:40an image of an apple, the medieval mind would immediately start
0:19:40 > 0:19:43connecting that with other narratives, other connections.
0:19:43 > 0:19:45For example, Adam and Eve.
0:19:45 > 0:19:50So, the apple would be a symbol of the fall from grace that Adam and Eve
0:19:50 > 0:19:54undertake after having eaten the apple from the Tree of Knowledge.
0:19:54 > 0:19:57And if it was depicted in visual culture,
0:19:57 > 0:20:01you wouldn't see just an apple by itself, you would have the apple and
0:20:01 > 0:20:05then you would have Adam and Eve, the tree and the serpent as well.
0:20:09 > 0:20:13The Catholic Church was the absolute force behind medieval art.
0:20:13 > 0:20:15In biblical terms,
0:20:15 > 0:20:19anything that glorified a mere object was strictly forbidden.
0:20:22 > 0:20:25There were to be no graven images.
0:20:29 > 0:20:32But one particular painting does take us
0:20:32 > 0:20:35a step closer to the rehabilitation of still life.
0:20:37 > 0:20:42This is Duccio's The Annunciation, painted over 700 years ago.
0:20:44 > 0:20:47It contains Renaissance still life in embryo.
0:20:49 > 0:20:53When the simplest things began to acquire a symbolic power...
0:20:53 > 0:20:54all of their own.
0:20:57 > 0:21:00"The Angel Gabriel was sent to a virgin
0:21:00 > 0:21:03"and the virgin's name was Mary.
0:21:05 > 0:21:10"Fear not, Mary, for thou hast found favour with God and behold,
0:21:10 > 0:21:14"thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son.
0:21:14 > 0:21:18"And you will call his name, Jesus.
0:21:18 > 0:21:21"And of his kingdom, there shall be no end."
0:21:25 > 0:21:30I suppose one way of thinking about Christian art is that it was
0:21:30 > 0:21:36a visual Bible for a largely illiterate population.
0:21:36 > 0:21:39When the high art of the Middle Ages developed, it was not only
0:21:39 > 0:21:42something that was beautiful for its own sake
0:21:42 > 0:21:46but it would have an instrumental, educational value
0:21:46 > 0:21:51so you would see the angel, and Mary devoutly, eyes down,
0:21:51 > 0:21:56and listening to this solemn address, and consenting to do the will of God.
0:21:56 > 0:22:01But there would be little interpretative tools in there,
0:22:01 > 0:22:05and probably the classic one is the vase of lilies,
0:22:05 > 0:22:09lilies being a sign of sexual innocence.
0:22:11 > 0:22:14This is very loaded, very potent symbolism.
0:22:22 > 0:22:25The object is still relegated in terms of its scale and
0:22:25 > 0:22:29prominence within religious painting, but the item is growing
0:22:29 > 0:22:32in symbolic power and it was this,
0:22:32 > 0:22:35alongside a technical development in paint,
0:22:35 > 0:22:39that would provide a launch-pad for the re-emergence of still life.
0:22:42 > 0:22:46Up until now, all major art works used tempera.
0:22:46 > 0:22:49This was a paint which used opaque egg yolk to bind pigment,
0:22:49 > 0:22:54and it restricted what great artists could achieve.
0:22:57 > 0:23:01It required small brushstrokes, dried quickly,
0:23:01 > 0:23:03and had a dull matte finish.
0:23:08 > 0:23:11It would take a new innovation to allow still life to grow
0:23:11 > 0:23:12towards illusion.
0:23:14 > 0:23:17That's where oil comes in.
0:23:17 > 0:23:22As a relatively new binding medium, it does create a revolution,
0:23:22 > 0:23:26if you like, in terms of what artists can show.
0:23:29 > 0:23:33Housed at St Bavo Cathedral in Belgium is the first major
0:23:33 > 0:23:37painting of the Renaissance to take full advantage of the new medium,
0:23:37 > 0:23:41the Ghent Altarpiece from 1432.
0:23:50 > 0:23:53Oil allowed artists to achieve greater virtuosity.
0:23:58 > 0:24:00Compared to a generation before,
0:24:00 > 0:24:03they could now paint with a new level of intense detail.
0:24:06 > 0:24:09A mix of natural and man-made materials that would soon
0:24:09 > 0:24:12become the mainstays of still life are all on display.
0:24:16 > 0:24:20But now, it's almost as if you could hold the object in your hand.
0:24:27 > 0:24:32With oil you can create much more depth and light and shadows
0:24:32 > 0:24:35and contrasts between light and dark,
0:24:35 > 0:24:40all things that are crucial to render all these materials properly.
0:24:43 > 0:24:46I think the developments of oil painting is hugely
0:24:46 > 0:24:49important for still life.
0:24:49 > 0:24:52The early painters of oil, they took those small-scale
0:24:52 > 0:24:55skills of being able to depict flowers and fruit.
0:24:57 > 0:25:01Oil paint enabled them to take that on to the large scale
0:25:01 > 0:25:03and they could create these wonderful effects.
0:25:06 > 0:25:10Oil paint just gives this whole new life and...
0:25:10 > 0:25:15light and sense of moisture and freshness to art.
0:25:18 > 0:25:20By the 16th century,
0:25:20 > 0:25:25the church continued to be the main commissioner of European art.
0:25:25 > 0:25:29But now painters were depicting elements of still life with
0:25:29 > 0:25:31a new sense of obsessive detail.
0:25:35 > 0:25:38Artists' love affair with the ordinary stuff of life would grow
0:25:38 > 0:25:41and grow until still life would begin masquerading
0:25:41 > 0:25:43as religious work.
0:25:47 > 0:25:51And there are no better examples of this bold artistic duplicity
0:25:51 > 0:25:53than at the National Gallery in London.
0:25:59 > 0:26:03In the Four Elements by Flemish painter Joachim Beuckelaer,
0:26:03 > 0:26:07the artist has to satisfy the demands of the church,
0:26:07 > 0:26:11so we find Jesus appearing to his disciples after the Resurrection.
0:26:14 > 0:26:19The true prominence in the painting is given to a market scene,
0:26:19 > 0:26:21teeming with details of fish.
0:26:23 > 0:26:26The Son of God has been firmly pushed into the background.
0:26:29 > 0:26:31Now we see Christ seated with Mary
0:26:31 > 0:26:34and Martha after raising Lazarus from the dead.
0:26:36 > 0:26:39But Beuckelaer has positioned Jesus away in the back room.
0:26:39 > 0:26:42He's little bigger than the loaf of bread,
0:26:42 > 0:26:45placed in the foreground, littered with elements of still life.
0:26:50 > 0:26:55In a painting of the same Bible story by Spanish artist Velazquez,
0:26:55 > 0:26:58we see the same ploy of inserting still life within religious works.
0:27:00 > 0:27:02Again, the figure of Jesus.
0:27:02 > 0:27:06But the fish, which are the symbol of Christianity,
0:27:06 > 0:27:08are given more prominence than Christ himself.
0:27:11 > 0:27:14After 1,000 years of being hidden from view,
0:27:14 > 0:27:18still life has begun to climb out from behind the veil of religion.
0:27:19 > 0:27:22Christianity has got a very odd relationship to still life
0:27:22 > 0:27:25because from the one point of view, and indeed for centuries,
0:27:25 > 0:27:26it wouldn't tolerate it.
0:27:26 > 0:27:30There'd be no place in a world that wanted radiant golden heaven
0:27:30 > 0:27:32around the saints and figures of the Bible.
0:27:32 > 0:27:34There was going to be no place for the everyday.
0:27:34 > 0:27:38But when still life does revive, it's revived through Christianity.
0:27:38 > 0:27:41It rides on the coat-tails of Christianity.
0:27:54 > 0:27:59By 1596, when Caravaggio finally painted The Basket Of Fruit,
0:27:59 > 0:28:03he achieved something that no-one had seen in living memory.
0:28:03 > 0:28:08He eliminated every obvious feature of grand religious narrative
0:28:08 > 0:28:11and placed the sole focus on a humble, simple object.
0:28:13 > 0:28:16He'd created a world without God.
0:28:18 > 0:28:22Although he brought the genre out from the shadows,
0:28:22 > 0:28:25Caravaggio would never paint another still life in his career.
0:28:36 > 0:28:40Although his fruit basket is such a famous picture,
0:28:40 > 0:28:42that's Caravaggio on the way up.
0:28:42 > 0:28:44That's what he wants to leave behind, that kind of work.
0:28:44 > 0:28:47He wants to paint human bodies in action.
0:28:51 > 0:28:53By the early 1600s,
0:28:53 > 0:28:55Caravaggio was being commissioned
0:28:55 > 0:28:58to paint important religious pictures,
0:28:58 > 0:29:01such as this painting of Christ and the disciples at Emmaus.
0:29:01 > 0:29:03In other words,
0:29:03 > 0:29:06he had become a major provider of pictures to the Catholic authorities,
0:29:06 > 0:29:09applying the realism of his early years
0:29:09 > 0:29:13to the business of depicting scenes from the Bible.
0:29:15 > 0:29:19Caravaggio may have begun to focus on explicitly religious subjects...
0:29:21 > 0:29:24..but he still finds space for an old friend.
0:29:35 > 0:29:37The Basket Of Fruit has been here at the Ambrosiana
0:29:37 > 0:29:40since the gallery opened in 1607.
0:29:40 > 0:29:43It was added to the collection by the founder,
0:29:43 > 0:29:45Cardinal Federico Borromeo.
0:29:46 > 0:29:50Borromeo was a major collector of art during the Renaissance
0:29:50 > 0:29:53and a key figure in the development of still life painting.
0:29:55 > 0:29:57His love of The Basket Of Fruit
0:29:57 > 0:29:59made him desire more works in a similar vein.
0:30:01 > 0:30:04He began to commission other early still life works
0:30:04 > 0:30:05from further afield.
0:30:07 > 0:30:10If you go to Milan and you look at the Ambrosiana collection,
0:30:10 > 0:30:12on the one hand you've got Caravaggio,
0:30:12 > 0:30:13on the other hand you've got Raphael.
0:30:13 > 0:30:18But then you've got huge amounts of Dutch still life painting.
0:30:26 > 0:30:29This spectacular flower piece at the Ambrosiana
0:30:29 > 0:30:31is by the Flemish painter Jan Brueghel.
0:30:34 > 0:30:36As part of their studies,
0:30:36 > 0:30:38Northern European artists like Brueghel
0:30:38 > 0:30:40would make the pilgrimage south,
0:30:40 > 0:30:43to soak up the influence of the masters of Italian art.
0:30:45 > 0:30:47This was very important for artists to go there.
0:30:47 > 0:30:50It was part of their training, their education.
0:30:50 > 0:30:54And you do see influences on their work when they come back.
0:30:54 > 0:30:57It has a huge impact on their style and development.
0:31:00 > 0:31:02I think it's hardly surprising
0:31:02 > 0:31:05that Northerners were drawn in particular to Caravaggio
0:31:05 > 0:31:08and took these lessons back with them to the north
0:31:08 > 0:31:10and became integral,
0:31:10 > 0:31:14became rooted, embedded in the art of the north in the 1600s.
0:31:16 > 0:31:18It was in Northern Europe
0:31:18 > 0:31:20that still life would fulfil its potential
0:31:20 > 0:31:21and, in particular,
0:31:21 > 0:31:25tiny Holland that would provide the setting for a golden age.
0:31:47 > 0:31:51I think it's incomparable what happened in Amsterdam,
0:31:51 > 0:31:54especially in Amsterdam around 1600,
0:31:54 > 0:31:58to see how this art market almost exploded,
0:31:58 > 0:32:00all of a sudden.
0:32:29 > 0:32:32It's amazing how fast still life spreads in Europe.
0:32:34 > 0:32:36It really is a mass phenomenon.
0:32:44 > 0:32:46By the 17th century,
0:32:46 > 0:32:48Dutch painters returning from Italy
0:32:48 > 0:32:51were coming home to a nation that had been revolutionised
0:32:51 > 0:32:54by a political and religious storm -
0:32:54 > 0:32:56the Protestant Reformation.
0:33:00 > 0:33:03An iconoclastic rage swept the country,
0:33:03 > 0:33:05transforming visual culture.
0:33:08 > 0:33:09The extravagant Catholic art
0:33:09 > 0:33:12that had dominated for over 1,000 years
0:33:12 > 0:33:14was torn down, destroyed.
0:33:16 > 0:33:19The Dutch had declared themselves a republic,
0:33:19 > 0:33:22free from the influence of monarchy,
0:33:22 > 0:33:24free from the Catholic Church.
0:33:26 > 0:33:30A new Protestant merchant class wanted a different type of art.
0:33:32 > 0:33:36Art that reflected a new world they'd created for themselves.
0:33:38 > 0:33:40This is really secular painting.
0:33:40 > 0:33:41It's almost the first era
0:33:41 > 0:33:44of absolutely non-religious painting in the world.
0:33:44 > 0:33:47And of course, the thing that's making that power of secularism
0:33:47 > 0:33:49is the economy, what's happening with the economy.
0:33:55 > 0:33:59The Dutch refer to the 17th century as their Golden Age.
0:33:59 > 0:34:01And with good reason.
0:34:01 > 0:34:03This small republic on the northern edge of Europe,
0:34:03 > 0:34:06uncoupled from the church and monarchy,
0:34:06 > 0:34:08used its freedom to transform itself
0:34:08 > 0:34:11into an economic and cultural superpower.
0:34:14 > 0:34:16They were quite simply
0:34:16 > 0:34:17the richest nation on earth.
0:34:22 > 0:34:26This is the 17th-century canal house of the Van Loon family,
0:34:26 > 0:34:29the most influential of Amsterdam's merchants,
0:34:29 > 0:34:32who weren't slow in enjoying their new affluence.
0:34:41 > 0:34:42Their fabulous wealth,
0:34:42 > 0:34:44like that of the nation,
0:34:44 > 0:34:47was built on vast maritime trading networks
0:34:47 > 0:34:49that spread across the globe.
0:34:53 > 0:34:57The Dutch ships were trading all over the world.
0:34:57 > 0:35:01And they were bringing in masses of stuff,
0:35:01 > 0:35:04all sorts of materials and objects,
0:35:04 > 0:35:09into the Netherlands and to the rest of Europe
0:35:09 > 0:35:13which you also find in the still life paintings from the period.
0:35:13 > 0:35:16So, you find Chinese porcelain...
0:35:17 > 0:35:19..exotic flowers,
0:35:19 > 0:35:21exotic fruit,
0:35:21 > 0:35:23all that sort of thing.
0:35:23 > 0:35:24In still life painting,
0:35:24 > 0:35:28the Dutch work out their relationship to things.
0:35:28 > 0:35:30They're, in a way, the first consumer society.
0:35:30 > 0:35:33So they are awash in plenty and in luxury goods.
0:35:33 > 0:35:35The Dutch art market boomed
0:35:35 > 0:35:38like no other market in Europe had boomed.
0:35:38 > 0:35:40But it went with the idea that when you get wealth,
0:35:40 > 0:35:44you should decorate your house, your home. It's the only other...
0:35:44 > 0:35:47it's the only foyer for the display of wealth in the Netherlands
0:35:47 > 0:35:48cos there isn't a court
0:35:48 > 0:35:50and there isn't a church that's going to gobble up
0:35:50 > 0:35:52the national surplus wealth. So it's in the home.
0:35:52 > 0:35:56So the primary object of Dutch wealth is the paintings.
0:36:04 > 0:36:06Dutch culture was unique in that
0:36:06 > 0:36:08everybody was buying paintings.
0:36:08 > 0:36:12You know, the postman was buying paintings.
0:36:12 > 0:36:13The baker was buying paintings.
0:36:13 > 0:36:17A baker owned several Vermeers.
0:36:17 > 0:36:19This was art for everybody.
0:36:32 > 0:36:35In these early decades of the 17th century,
0:36:35 > 0:36:37millions of paintings must have been made.
0:36:37 > 0:36:39So it was a fully new market.
0:36:51 > 0:36:53A mass market for paintings on this scale
0:36:53 > 0:36:57had never been seen anywhere in the world before.
0:36:57 > 0:36:59Art became an industry.
0:37:01 > 0:37:03And such was the craze for still life
0:37:03 > 0:37:04that customer-savvy painters
0:37:04 > 0:37:07began to develop mass production techniques
0:37:07 > 0:37:08to satisfy the demand.
0:37:20 > 0:37:24OK, this is a still life with dead game, from Franz Snyders.
0:37:24 > 0:37:28Franz Snyders went to Italy for a short period
0:37:28 > 0:37:30and after he came back,
0:37:30 > 0:37:32he developed much more his own style.
0:37:32 > 0:37:34So it was clearly
0:37:34 > 0:37:36a very important visit for him.
0:37:36 > 0:37:39So it's a very interesting piece,
0:37:39 > 0:37:41in terms of studio practice.
0:37:41 > 0:37:45Because when you look at this particular painting,
0:37:45 > 0:37:50you can see there's big motifs of the roe deer, the boar,
0:37:50 > 0:37:52the lobster on the plate,
0:37:52 > 0:37:54the dead birds here and there,
0:37:54 > 0:37:56fruit, vegetables -
0:37:56 > 0:37:58everything is in there.
0:37:58 > 0:38:01And if you look at other works by Snyders,
0:38:01 > 0:38:05you find that these motifs have been used again and again.
0:38:05 > 0:38:08We know by making a tracing of the deer
0:38:08 > 0:38:11on transparent foil, melinex foil,
0:38:11 > 0:38:15and then placed it on other paintings by Franz Snyders
0:38:15 > 0:38:17showing the same motif.
0:38:17 > 0:38:21And with small variations, very small variations,
0:38:21 > 0:38:23it fit it quite well.
0:38:23 > 0:38:26So the idea that a painter would sit
0:38:26 > 0:38:29with this whole banquet here in front of him
0:38:29 > 0:38:31is not really realistic.
0:38:31 > 0:38:34In this case, Snyders would have drawings
0:38:34 > 0:38:37of all these different motifs
0:38:37 > 0:38:42and he would combine them into an interesting composition
0:38:42 > 0:38:47and repeat that with different combinations for other paintings.
0:38:48 > 0:38:51There was an incredibly demanding market
0:38:51 > 0:38:55so they needed to produce quite large numbers of works
0:38:55 > 0:39:00and this is an efficient way of creating new compositions.
0:39:09 > 0:39:12Creating fictional compositions became commonplace.
0:39:14 > 0:39:16Perhaps the perfect example
0:39:16 > 0:39:20of Dutch artists foregoing reality in pursuit of striking composition
0:39:20 > 0:39:22can be seen in their approach to nature,
0:39:22 > 0:39:24with floral still life.
0:39:30 > 0:39:33Looking at the flower paintings of the 17th century,
0:39:33 > 0:39:36it's about bringing together
0:39:36 > 0:39:39as many beautiful, rare and exotic examples of flowers
0:39:39 > 0:39:41as you possibly could.
0:39:45 > 0:39:48It's done purely for pictorial effect.
0:39:55 > 0:39:57It's very much this anti-natural impulse.
0:39:57 > 0:40:00And so what you are looking at is what humans do with nature,
0:40:00 > 0:40:01not nature itself.
0:40:01 > 0:40:03You find flower painting
0:40:03 > 0:40:06where species that could not possibly exist in the same seasonal moment
0:40:06 > 0:40:10are brought together in a kind of triumph of wealth and ownership.
0:40:14 > 0:40:17I think what they are
0:40:17 > 0:40:19is a kind of coded celebration
0:40:19 > 0:40:22of the Dutch Republic's power and influence.
0:40:22 > 0:40:24Because what you get is
0:40:24 > 0:40:28you get these flowers from different parts of the world
0:40:28 > 0:40:31in which the Dutch have been trading.
0:40:31 > 0:40:33And yet, they're all in the same vase.
0:40:33 > 0:40:36So what the vase of flowers expresses
0:40:36 > 0:40:40is the extent, the global extent, of Dutch maritime trade.
0:40:40 > 0:40:41That painting is a kind of...
0:40:41 > 0:40:44"This is us."
0:40:44 > 0:40:45It's a bouquet of power.
0:40:49 > 0:40:51During the Golden Age,
0:40:51 > 0:40:54fortunes could even be made in the flowers themselves.
0:40:54 > 0:40:57And in particular, this new import from Asia.
0:40:59 > 0:41:02Tulip mania, as it was called, saw the trade in tulip bulbs
0:41:02 > 0:41:06become engulfed in crazed financial speculation,
0:41:06 > 0:41:08sending prices soaring.
0:41:10 > 0:41:12The bulb of a single tulip
0:41:12 > 0:41:15could cost three times as much as a house.
0:41:15 > 0:41:19So they were such rare and exotic plants
0:41:19 > 0:41:23that no-one would cut them.
0:41:23 > 0:41:27You wouldn't have tulips as cut flowers
0:41:27 > 0:41:29in real life
0:41:29 > 0:41:32because they were just too expensive and, you know,
0:41:32 > 0:41:34you just would never do it.
0:41:34 > 0:41:39In paintings, to see a whole bouquet of just tulips
0:41:39 > 0:41:40was outrageous.
0:41:45 > 0:41:48Displays of outrageous affluence took several forms
0:41:48 > 0:41:51and were commonplace in Golden Age still life.
0:41:52 > 0:41:56The Dutch were hungry for the prestige that went with consumption.
0:41:56 > 0:41:59Another genre that's developed are banquet pieces
0:41:59 > 0:42:02where you get tables not unlike this amazing table here
0:42:02 > 0:42:05that are absolutely uninhibited displays
0:42:05 > 0:42:07of maximum possession of wealth.
0:42:14 > 0:42:18Lobster and crayfish are not normal foodstuffs in the Netherlands
0:42:18 > 0:42:22and citrus fruit doesn't grow in the Netherlands.
0:42:22 > 0:42:23It all has to be brought in
0:42:23 > 0:42:26so it's a celebration of that kind of power
0:42:26 > 0:42:29to bring together in one place all the luxury of the world.
0:42:35 > 0:42:37As the genre matures,
0:42:37 > 0:42:40you find that the scene of consumption, the scene of wealth,
0:42:40 > 0:42:42it becomes increasingly barbarous.
0:42:42 > 0:42:44Things are pushed over.
0:42:44 > 0:42:48The whole table is sort of strewn with a kind of principle of litter.
0:42:48 > 0:42:50It's wreckage. It's like destruction,
0:42:50 > 0:42:52consumption as destruction.
0:42:58 > 0:43:00At the same time, it's a Calvinist culture
0:43:00 > 0:43:03with a tremendous amount of guilt about acquisition.
0:43:03 > 0:43:04They're generally worried
0:43:04 > 0:43:06that although they've worked hard for this, earned it,
0:43:06 > 0:43:09nonetheless in wealth itself there's a principle of corruption
0:43:09 > 0:43:12that will undo them or undo their souls or make them unhappy.
0:43:12 > 0:43:14So, you find a very odd,
0:43:14 > 0:43:17kind of, push-pull thing happening in Dutch still life painting
0:43:17 > 0:43:20between on the one hand a perfectly understandable desire
0:43:20 > 0:43:23to celebrate all this wealth with which the country is awash.
0:43:23 > 0:43:25At the same time,
0:43:25 > 0:43:29a sort of residual religious sentiment that this is not good.
0:43:30 > 0:43:33Strictly speaking, as devout Calvinists,
0:43:33 > 0:43:36the Dutch shouldn't be celebrating their affluence with decorative art.
0:43:37 > 0:43:39So how do you keep collecting paintings
0:43:39 > 0:43:42and avoid the corrupting influence of acquisition?
0:43:44 > 0:43:48Still life painters had an answer for these guilty Protestants,
0:43:48 > 0:43:52containing a message with a rather daunting reminder of mortality.
0:44:00 > 0:44:04The subject of the vanitas, the painting that reminds us of death,
0:44:04 > 0:44:07is a whole class of still life painting
0:44:07 > 0:44:10where the symbols of death and mortality
0:44:10 > 0:44:12and the transience of human life
0:44:12 > 0:44:14are so obvious that they can't be avoided.
0:44:19 > 0:44:22Most often, we recognise a vanitas painting
0:44:22 > 0:44:23by the presence of a skull,
0:44:23 > 0:44:26which is sort of a dead giveaway that, you know,
0:44:26 > 0:44:30everything else around the skull has to do with the idea
0:44:30 > 0:44:32of death and transience
0:44:32 > 0:44:36and the futility of accumulating material possessions
0:44:36 > 0:44:40because, when you die, you don't take it with you.
0:44:44 > 0:44:48Very often, another component that we see
0:44:48 > 0:44:51are helmets or militaria
0:44:51 > 0:44:55that remind you of the futility of war, ultimately.
0:44:58 > 0:45:03A lot of times, you see items that have to do with music
0:45:03 > 0:45:06because before recorded music,
0:45:06 > 0:45:09music was something that existed only as you played it.
0:45:09 > 0:45:11And as soon as you stopped, it was dead.
0:45:11 > 0:45:13It didn't exist any more.
0:45:17 > 0:45:20It's as if these people are celebrating their riches
0:45:20 > 0:45:25and yet there's always this vanitas undertone of meaning.
0:45:25 > 0:45:29You know, all of this is going to fade, it will pass.
0:45:29 > 0:45:33And Holland, you know, Holland was a hugely volatile nation.
0:45:33 > 0:45:35Fortunes were made and lost like that.
0:45:35 > 0:45:39So any depiction of riches, wealth, grandeur and splendour
0:45:39 > 0:45:42was always, you know, was always threatened.
0:45:42 > 0:45:45A still life painting makes that perfectly explicit.
0:45:45 > 0:45:48You know, you can always imagine pulling that cloth
0:45:48 > 0:45:50and everything would go onto the floor.
0:45:50 > 0:45:53Well, life was like that for the Dutch.
0:46:03 > 0:46:05Despite the millions of paintings
0:46:05 > 0:46:08that were created in Holland during the 17th century,
0:46:08 > 0:46:11the most comprehensive collection of Golden Age still life
0:46:11 > 0:46:14is to be found somewhere a bit closer to home.
0:46:23 > 0:46:25The Ashmolean has surprisingly one of the largest,
0:46:25 > 0:46:27if not the largest,
0:46:27 > 0:46:29collections of still life painting
0:46:29 > 0:46:31from 17th-century Holland and Flanders
0:46:31 > 0:46:32in existence.
0:46:34 > 0:46:36It's a remarkable collection
0:46:36 > 0:46:38because it covers every aspect of still life painting
0:46:38 > 0:46:42in the period from the early 1600s through to the early 1700s.
0:46:52 > 0:46:56Well, here we are in the collection of still life paintings, at last.
0:46:59 > 0:47:02This collection was given to us in 1939
0:47:02 > 0:47:05by a collector from Newcastle, called Theodore Ward,
0:47:05 > 0:47:09who made his money in international paint.
0:47:09 > 0:47:12The collection was given to us in memory of his widow,
0:47:12 > 0:47:13Daisy Linda Travers,
0:47:13 > 0:47:16or Daisy Linda Ward as she became after her marriage,
0:47:16 > 0:47:19who was an opera singer in her early years.
0:47:21 > 0:47:24The collection is probably the most comprehensive of its kind
0:47:24 > 0:47:26in existence.
0:47:26 > 0:47:29Most of the great names of the 17th century
0:47:29 > 0:47:31are here in this gallery.
0:47:32 > 0:47:35And it goes round the room in a sequence
0:47:35 > 0:47:39passing through the large paintings of Isaak Soreau,
0:47:39 > 0:47:41an artist who came from Frankfurt,
0:47:41 > 0:47:44and who painted in a tradition that's slightly different
0:47:44 > 0:47:46from the tradition that we associate
0:47:46 > 0:47:49with painting in Holland at this time.
0:47:51 > 0:47:53The painting by Clara Peeters
0:47:53 > 0:47:56is probably one of the most important paintings
0:47:56 > 0:47:59in the collection of the Ashmolean,
0:47:59 > 0:48:02not because Clara Peeters is a famous artist.
0:48:02 > 0:48:04In fact the opposite is true.
0:48:04 > 0:48:06Her life is particularly obscure.
0:48:06 > 0:48:09We don't know where she was born, we don't know when she was born.
0:48:09 > 0:48:12We're not even sure who taught her to paint.
0:48:12 > 0:48:15But the pictures themselves bear witness
0:48:15 > 0:48:18to the accomplishment in the art of still life painting
0:48:18 > 0:48:23by an artist who was working in the 1620s, 1630s.
0:48:23 > 0:48:25Her work is magnificent.
0:48:27 > 0:48:29And as we come round to this long wall,
0:48:29 > 0:48:33we pass a great display of the more florid painters
0:48:33 > 0:48:36of the middle years of the 17th century.
0:48:36 > 0:48:38And it moves through a really sensational
0:48:38 > 0:48:41group of paintings by Abraham Van Beyeren,
0:48:41 > 0:48:44whose banquet pieces speak for themselves,
0:48:44 > 0:48:46so gloriously detailed are they.
0:48:50 > 0:48:52A grand banquet of a type which no doubt
0:48:52 > 0:48:56Abraham Van Beyeren himself rarely enjoyed.
0:48:57 > 0:49:00And we move round the corner into a series of paintings
0:49:00 > 0:49:03which take us towards the end of the 17th century
0:49:03 > 0:49:06and into the beginning of the 18th century,
0:49:06 > 0:49:09when this much more decorative tendency,
0:49:09 > 0:49:11the more florid and colourful tendency
0:49:11 > 0:49:14that we saw in these earlier paintings
0:49:14 > 0:49:17reaches a kind of rococo apogee.
0:49:23 > 0:49:26And this is a tendency that continues through
0:49:26 > 0:49:29into the works of Rachel Ruysch, for example,
0:49:29 > 0:49:33whose ornamental and almost rococo pictures
0:49:33 > 0:49:35represent a final theme
0:49:35 > 0:49:39in the development of Dutch still life painting
0:49:39 > 0:49:42as it emerged in the early 1700s.
0:49:42 > 0:49:44She was a very important artist
0:49:44 > 0:49:48but she was also one of the last in this great century of paintings
0:49:48 > 0:49:52that mark the golden age in the history of the art of still life.
0:49:59 > 0:50:03I suppose my favourite painting in this gallery
0:50:03 > 0:50:04is the least typical of them all
0:50:04 > 0:50:08and one that stands aside from the more sumptuous paintings
0:50:08 > 0:50:11that were being done in the lifetime of the artist, Adriaen Coorte,
0:50:11 > 0:50:13about whom we know very little.
0:50:13 > 0:50:15You get what you see in a painting like this.
0:50:15 > 0:50:17It is very...
0:50:17 > 0:50:18understated.
0:50:18 > 0:50:22And the reason why he painted it is particularly opaque,
0:50:22 > 0:50:24other than the fact that he wanted to make an image,
0:50:24 > 0:50:28and a particularly liquid and beautifully-lit image,
0:50:28 > 0:50:31of such a commonplace thing as a bundle of asparagus.
0:50:31 > 0:50:34It's making out of the stuff of nature and the commonplace
0:50:34 > 0:50:38something that is as lasting as a work of art and a thing of beauty.
0:50:38 > 0:50:41I've never felt so warmly about asparagus in real life
0:50:41 > 0:50:44as I do in the flat and silent art of still life painting.
0:50:46 > 0:50:47I love this one.
0:50:57 > 0:50:59Taking commonplace things
0:50:59 > 0:51:02and elevating them into objects of great beauty
0:51:02 > 0:51:05wasn't just restricted to the Netherlands.
0:51:05 > 0:51:09Spanish painters had also begun to explore the art of materialism.
0:51:14 > 0:51:17In Spain, which is an immensely powerful country
0:51:17 > 0:51:20with a huge empire, a vast economy and a very powerful aristocracy...
0:51:20 > 0:51:23Nonetheless, its interpretation of still life painting
0:51:23 > 0:51:26is to locate its true being in the monasteries,
0:51:26 > 0:51:28in monastic painting,
0:51:28 > 0:51:31painted by painters who either were lay brothers
0:51:31 > 0:51:34or had experience of monastic communities.
0:51:37 > 0:51:39These austere arrangements
0:51:39 > 0:51:42were painted by a Spanish Carthusian monk,
0:51:42 > 0:51:43Juan Sanchez Cotan.
0:51:46 > 0:51:49They're known as works of Bodegons,
0:51:49 > 0:51:50larder pieces.
0:52:00 > 0:52:03The items of food featured were stored within a concrete block
0:52:03 > 0:52:05and suspended on string
0:52:05 > 0:52:07to help with refrigeration.
0:52:08 > 0:52:11Unlike his contemporaries in the Netherlands,
0:52:11 > 0:52:13Cotan was a dedicated realist,
0:52:13 > 0:52:16painting the world exactly as he found it.
0:52:21 > 0:52:23If you look at Cotan,
0:52:23 > 0:52:26it's very much about a kind of renunciation of the world.
0:52:26 > 0:52:28It's about leaving the world.
0:52:28 > 0:52:30Not believing in the world's show.
0:52:30 > 0:52:34Looking at the simplest things in the world because your values
0:52:34 > 0:52:39are adjusted to the values of monastic life, contemplative life.
0:52:39 > 0:52:43In some Spanish still life painting, you get the contents of a larder.
0:52:43 > 0:52:45It could not be more unimportant.
0:52:45 > 0:52:49They are arranged in these suspensions of string
0:52:49 > 0:52:54that make them seem like mathematical constructions
0:52:54 > 0:52:56or like the solar system.
0:52:56 > 0:52:59They look completely out of this world. They look otherworldly.
0:52:59 > 0:53:02Otherworldly still life. No other school does that.
0:53:23 > 0:53:27If the 17th century had seen the golden age of still life,
0:53:27 > 0:53:30in the 18th, it suffered a more complicated fate.
0:53:33 > 0:53:37This is the world-famous Louvre, in Paris.
0:53:37 > 0:53:40In its earlier existence, it was the French royal palace.
0:53:44 > 0:53:47By the 18th century, Louis XIV, the Sun King,
0:53:47 > 0:53:50decided this place wasn't grand enough
0:53:50 > 0:53:55to suit his rather extravagant tastes and moved his entire court
0:53:55 > 0:53:57to a new home, Versailles.
0:53:59 > 0:54:04Back at the Louvre, the building was soon occupied by a new institution
0:54:04 > 0:54:07that would make Paris the centre of European art.
0:54:09 > 0:54:13The French Academy was founded in 1648
0:54:13 > 0:54:17and the elected academicians agreed what were the rules of art.
0:54:17 > 0:54:21They decided what constituted the best kind of art,
0:54:21 > 0:54:25what was less important art, what was the least important art,
0:54:25 > 0:54:28and they also controlled, in effect, royal commissions,
0:54:28 > 0:54:31so anyone who wanted to get big money for painting
0:54:31 > 0:54:34needed to go through the Academy.
0:54:35 > 0:54:38The academies placed a very high value on drawing
0:54:38 > 0:54:43and painting the human figure. Life class was the centre of the Academy.
0:54:43 > 0:54:47Artists were chiefly judged for their talent as figure painters.
0:54:47 > 0:54:50They were trained to paint human figures,
0:54:50 > 0:54:55they were trained to paint physiognomy and gesture and action.
0:54:55 > 0:54:56Human drama, in other words,
0:54:56 > 0:54:59which was regarded as the most important element,
0:54:59 > 0:55:01so that an artist who did not paint the human figure
0:55:01 > 0:55:03or indeed, in some cases,
0:55:03 > 0:55:05artists who could not paint the human figure,
0:55:05 > 0:55:07were regarded as the bottom of the heap.
0:55:09 > 0:55:13The academic tradition of painting placed still life,
0:55:13 > 0:55:17which just shows inanimate things, absolutely bottom,
0:55:17 > 0:55:21then came landscape which was depiction of the world,
0:55:21 > 0:55:27then came portrait, depiction of man, but then the serious stuff begins.
0:55:27 > 0:55:30Mythological painting, narrative painting, biblical painting.
0:55:30 > 0:55:34That was high art because it shows man in action, man in thought.
0:55:34 > 0:55:39That's why this hierarchy exists.
0:55:39 > 0:55:42Still life painters are always fighting an uphill battle,
0:55:42 > 0:55:44always fighting to be taken seriously.
0:55:44 > 0:55:47Chardin, the great French still life,
0:55:47 > 0:55:51probably the first still life painter to begin to be really
0:55:51 > 0:55:54taken seriously, he fights the good fight.
0:56:07 > 0:56:10"Proust once wrote an essay in which he set out to restore
0:56:10 > 0:56:15"a smile to the face of a gloomy, envious and dissatisfied young man.
0:56:15 > 0:56:19"He pictured this young man sitting at a table after lunch one day
0:56:19 > 0:56:24"in his parents' flat, gazing dejectedly at his surroundings.
0:56:24 > 0:56:28"The mundanity of the scene would contrast with the young man's taste
0:56:28 > 0:56:32"for beautiful and costly things which he lacked the money to buy.
0:56:32 > 0:56:36"Proust imagined the revulsion the young aesthete would feel
0:56:36 > 0:56:39"at this bourgeois interior, and how he would compare it
0:56:39 > 0:56:43"to the splendours he had seen in museums and cathedrals.
0:56:43 > 0:56:48"To escape his domestic gloom, the young man might leave the flat
0:56:48 > 0:56:51"and go to the Louvre, where at least he could feast his eyes
0:56:51 > 0:56:53"on splendid things.
0:56:53 > 0:56:56"Touched by his predicament, Proust proposed to make
0:56:56 > 0:57:01"a radical change to the young man's life by way of a modest alteration
0:57:01 > 0:57:03"to his museum itinerary.
0:57:03 > 0:57:06"Rather than let him hurry to galleries hung with paintings
0:57:06 > 0:57:08"by Claude and Veronese,
0:57:08 > 0:57:11"Proust suggested leading him to a quite different part of the museum,
0:57:11 > 0:57:17"to those galleries hung with the works of JeanBaptiste Chardin.
0:57:19 > 0:57:22"A peach by him was as pink and chubby as a cherub,
0:57:22 > 0:57:25"a plate of oysters or a slice of lemon
0:57:25 > 0:57:28"were tempting symbols of gluttony and sensuality.
0:57:28 > 0:57:31"A skate slit open and hanging from a hook
0:57:31 > 0:57:36"evoked the sea of which it had been a fearsome denizen in its lifetime.
0:57:36 > 0:57:39"Its insides, coloured with a deep red blood,
0:57:39 > 0:57:44"blue nerves and white muscles, were like the naves of a polychrome cathedral.
0:57:45 > 0:57:47"After an encounter with Chardin,
0:57:47 > 0:57:52"Proust had high hopes for the spiritual transformation
0:57:52 > 0:57:54"of his sad young man as he wrote,
0:57:54 > 0:57:58"'Once he had been dazzled by this opulent description
0:57:58 > 0:58:02"'of what he called mediocrity, this appetising depiction of a life
0:58:02 > 0:58:06"'he had found insipid, this great art of nature
0:58:06 > 0:58:11"'he had found so paltry, I should say to him, now, are you happy?'"
0:58:15 > 0:58:18I think what's remarkable about Chardin is he is undeniably a great artist.
0:58:18 > 0:58:21He's got total command of his medium
0:58:21 > 0:58:23and none of his critics
0:58:23 > 0:58:25and observers of his time
0:58:25 > 0:58:27could possibly deny that this was
0:58:27 > 0:58:30a master of handling the medium of paint.
0:58:30 > 0:58:33But what was fascinating and what was such a challenge
0:58:33 > 0:58:37to his contemporaries was what he decided it was important to paint.
0:58:37 > 0:58:40He didn't just say that still life was important.
0:58:40 > 0:58:43He showed in a visceral and sensory way that it could be.
0:58:45 > 0:58:49Jean-Baptiste Chardin was an 18th-century French artist
0:58:49 > 0:58:53and one of the finest painters of still life the world has ever known.
0:58:55 > 0:58:58Born in Paris, he never once left the city.
0:59:00 > 0:59:05He lived in a period dominated by the extravagant rococo style of Neoclassicism.
0:59:07 > 0:59:12His simple act of revolution was to create a world of truth and calm.
0:59:12 > 0:59:16In 1728, without establishment contacts
0:59:16 > 0:59:19and with no intellectual background,
0:59:19 > 0:59:23Chardin submitted two works to the all-powerful French Academy.
0:59:34 > 0:59:36He was instantly accepted.
0:59:39 > 0:59:44He's like a revolutionary force that's constantly being pushed down.
0:59:44 > 0:59:47In the Academy, he was given the lowest possible job,
0:59:47 > 0:59:50the person who hangs the paintings for the annual shows,
0:59:50 > 0:59:54so he's officially where he should be, at the bottom of the heap.
0:59:57 > 1:00:01One has to remember that for the 18th century,
1:00:01 > 1:00:04in France and in all Europe,
1:00:04 > 1:00:08the major quality of a painter was invention.
1:00:08 > 1:00:13To paint a still life was considered as the simplest thing you could do
1:00:13 > 1:00:15because you had no invention.
1:00:15 > 1:00:17You had in front of you some peaches or something,
1:00:17 > 1:00:21and you had to copy them. It looked like it was so simple to do so.
1:00:21 > 1:00:24Chardin in a certain way breaks this.
1:00:24 > 1:00:28He is trying to say, he is proving that in a certain way
1:00:28 > 1:00:32it is as difficult and as great to paint something you see,
1:00:32 > 1:00:34as something you don't see,
1:00:34 > 1:00:37and for the 18th century it was very difficult to accept this.
1:00:37 > 1:00:40He had his own way of thinking, his own way of painting
1:00:40 > 1:00:45and in fact for him, simplicity was one of the keys of the greatest art.
1:00:45 > 1:00:50Simplicity, but what I think is even more important for him
1:00:50 > 1:00:52is how to paint silence.
1:00:55 > 1:01:00To paint fruit is very easy but to paint silence is very difficult.
1:01:07 > 1:01:09Chardin is really a sort of peaceful place,
1:01:09 > 1:01:11a sort of peaceful garden out of time
1:01:11 > 1:01:16where you forget the trouble of your everyday life.
1:01:22 > 1:01:25We are living around objects, objects around us everywhere.
1:01:25 > 1:01:28We are not looking at them.
1:01:28 > 1:01:32We are forgetting that they are unique in a certain way.
1:01:32 > 1:01:35That food is unique,
1:01:35 > 1:01:40le gobelet d'argent, silver has always beauties.
1:01:40 > 1:01:45An artist, especially an artist interested in still life,
1:01:45 > 1:01:49to make you aware of the beauty of things around you.
1:01:56 > 1:02:01With such magnificent ability, Chardin's reputation and fame grew
1:02:01 > 1:02:04and despite his radical choice of lowly subject,
1:02:04 > 1:02:07he became one of the richest painters in France.
1:02:11 > 1:02:13In one slightly bizarre work,
1:02:13 > 1:02:15we can see him parody his own position
1:02:15 > 1:02:19whilst poking fun at his detractors within the Academy.
1:02:26 > 1:02:29Chardin knows a lot about optics
1:02:29 > 1:02:33and will have had conversations about how the eye works,
1:02:33 > 1:02:37and he introduces something very amazing into still life painting,
1:02:37 > 1:02:40which is the idea that the eye doesn't see
1:02:40 > 1:02:43everything at the same degree of vigilant high focus.
1:02:43 > 1:02:46If you look at most Chardin paintings,
1:02:46 > 1:02:48there will be one, two or maybe three perches
1:02:48 > 1:02:50for the eye to rest on, where things are in high focus,
1:02:50 > 1:02:53and the rest will be blurry and that blur
1:02:53 > 1:02:57is something very special to Chardin. No-one produced this before Chardin.
1:02:57 > 1:03:00He had techniques he didn't want people to see,
1:03:00 > 1:03:05because there is no record of what it was like to watch Chardin paint,
1:03:05 > 1:03:08but it's very clear he had a lot of unorthodox techniques
1:03:08 > 1:03:10for applying the paint to the canvas.
1:03:10 > 1:03:14It's very clear he was handling paint, which you shouldn't do.
1:03:15 > 1:03:19If you look at the late self portraits, his skin is going grey
1:03:19 > 1:03:24until finally it's completely grey and he's dying of lead poisoning.
1:03:24 > 1:03:28He has been handling paint all his life and takes its toll.
1:03:28 > 1:03:29Paint is a very toxic substance.
1:03:33 > 1:03:36Within the French Royal Academy, Chardin would influence
1:03:36 > 1:03:40the perception of what still life could achieve.
1:03:40 > 1:03:44In 1770, another still life painter would submit works
1:03:44 > 1:03:48whilst applying to join the institution.
1:03:49 > 1:03:52This artist would face a different kind of prejudice.
1:03:56 > 1:03:59She was 26-year-old Anne Vallayer-Coster.
1:04:02 > 1:04:06She was one of only four women ever accepted in the French Academy.
1:04:06 > 1:04:08At the time, very few female painters
1:04:08 > 1:04:11could even dream of a serious career in art.
1:04:13 > 1:04:18She was enormously talented, incredibly confident handling
1:04:18 > 1:04:23both of composition and the surface texture of things.
1:04:27 > 1:04:30She was patronised by Marie Antoinette.
1:04:30 > 1:04:35She enabled Vallayer-Coster to get lodgings in the Louvre,
1:04:35 > 1:04:40which was absolutely exceptional for a woman, and meant she had
1:04:40 > 1:04:45her lodgings and studio in among the other top artists of her time.
1:04:47 > 1:04:49The academies were the key institutions
1:04:49 > 1:04:52if you wanted a successful career as an artist
1:04:52 > 1:04:55but they were of course deeply problematic for women.
1:04:59 > 1:05:01At a very straightforward level,
1:05:01 > 1:05:04women were not allowed in art academies
1:05:04 > 1:05:06because there were naked men there,
1:05:06 > 1:05:12and women were not allowed to hire male models to paint from.
1:05:12 > 1:05:16However, women were allowed to look at bunches of grapes.
1:05:16 > 1:05:19That's one of the reasons why women flourish in the field
1:05:19 > 1:05:21of still life painting.
1:05:21 > 1:05:23It's one of the few areas they're allowed in!
1:05:23 > 1:05:26Women were barred from acquiring the skills
1:05:26 > 1:05:30they need for the higher genres, and then they were told that women
1:05:30 > 1:05:34were only capable of the lowest ones.
1:05:34 > 1:05:38Although they might be seen a equal to men within that sphere,
1:05:38 > 1:05:41they could never quite get the higher status and reputation
1:05:41 > 1:05:43that was open to men.
1:05:46 > 1:05:49Vallayer-Coster is typical of a line of female artists
1:05:49 > 1:05:52throughout history, whose desire to paint found expression
1:05:52 > 1:05:54through the only genre considered suitable for them.
1:05:56 > 1:05:58Women were marginalised in art
1:05:58 > 1:06:02and found an outlet in the disregarded genre of still life.
1:06:04 > 1:06:08The talent Vallayer-Coster displayed demonstrates that she was the equal
1:06:08 > 1:06:11of any other Academy painter.
1:06:12 > 1:06:15In the end, her association with Marie Antoinette
1:06:15 > 1:06:19and the Royal Court would have a ruinous effect on her career,
1:06:19 > 1:06:23as French society was engulfed in the pandemonium of revolution.
1:06:49 > 1:06:54By the 19th century, France had been transformed.
1:06:56 > 1:06:59Despite the political turmoil, the strict French Academy system
1:06:59 > 1:07:04had survived but art too was about to undergo its own revolution.
1:07:06 > 1:07:09An unknown painter from a small town in the south of France
1:07:09 > 1:07:11was about to change everything.
1:07:13 > 1:07:15Still life would lead the charge.
1:07:22 > 1:07:25The artist's name was Paul Cezanne.
1:07:31 > 1:07:35Cezanne was born here in the small town of Aix-en-Provence in 1839.
1:07:38 > 1:07:40It was here he built his studio
1:07:40 > 1:07:43and dedicated himself to a revolutionary artistic style.
1:07:46 > 1:07:48Today, he is remembered as a monumental figure,
1:07:48 > 1:07:50the father of modern art.
1:07:51 > 1:07:55But in his own lifetime, many did not or could not
1:07:55 > 1:07:57understand him or his work.
1:08:00 > 1:08:04To his contemporaries, his radical painting style looked rushed...
1:08:07 > 1:08:10..imprecise...
1:08:10 > 1:08:11and distorted.
1:08:14 > 1:08:16It was the antithesis of the realism
1:08:16 > 1:08:19that had dominated European art for centuries.
1:08:23 > 1:08:29Cezanne thinks, "Huh, light falling on objects...
1:08:29 > 1:08:32"Maybe painting is all about perception.
1:08:32 > 1:08:35"How am I going to emphasise painting is all about perception?
1:08:35 > 1:08:37"I know! I'll paint something really banal.
1:08:37 > 1:08:40"I'll paint an apple," and then he says "I'll stun Paris with an apple."
1:08:40 > 1:08:42He's not really painting an apple.
1:08:42 > 1:08:45What he's painting is his own way of seeing
1:08:45 > 1:08:48and if you look, he's given it a double outline.
1:08:48 > 1:08:52It's his way of saying, everything we look at is constantly just...
1:08:52 > 1:08:55If you look at Cezanne, it makes you feel a bit sick.
1:08:55 > 1:09:00Picasso said the great thing about Cezanne is his anxiety.
1:09:00 > 1:09:03Painting an apple was his way of showing his anxiety,
1:09:03 > 1:09:07his uncertainty, his sense that what we see is not fixed.
1:09:39 > 1:09:41Welcome to Cezanne's studio.
1:09:41 > 1:09:44The studio was designed by Cezanne himself.
1:09:44 > 1:09:48He wanted a very large picture window on the north
1:09:48 > 1:09:51and two other large windows on the south.
1:09:51 > 1:09:55The light is very important in the studio.
1:09:55 > 1:10:01He wanted to get the same condition he had when he was outside.
1:10:08 > 1:10:14Cezanne died in 1906 and the studio doesn't change in any way.
1:10:14 > 1:10:18You have the same atmosphere in this hall.
1:10:18 > 1:10:23You always smile at the painting and the fruit.
1:10:25 > 1:10:29All the objects in the studio were painted by Cezanne
1:10:29 > 1:10:34and we can now recognise the main objects,
1:10:34 > 1:10:37like this little plaster Cupid,
1:10:37 > 1:10:43who was painted by Cezanne in ten works.
1:11:01 > 1:11:05The star is this green pot and olive pot.
1:11:05 > 1:11:11A ginger pot, a round bottle, a wine bottle, a glass.
1:11:11 > 1:11:15All these objects Cezanne painted in his still life
1:11:15 > 1:11:17are very simple objects,
1:11:17 > 1:11:23and the form and the reflection of this object
1:11:23 > 1:11:29was the main interest for Cezanne for painting them.
1:11:45 > 1:11:51This is the fruit bowl we see in so many still lives.
1:11:58 > 1:12:01You can recognise on this table the specific line here.
1:12:10 > 1:12:13Of course, the skulls we can recognise
1:12:13 > 1:12:15in his vanities.
1:12:23 > 1:12:28And on this bottle, we can see his finger marks.
1:12:31 > 1:12:33All around.
1:12:37 > 1:12:43It's very emotional to see that this bottle was in the hand of Cezanne.
1:12:48 > 1:12:54What is amazing is knowing that the simple objects
1:12:54 > 1:12:57became model of still lives
1:12:57 > 1:13:05and with the subjects he concretises all his theory on painting.
1:13:23 > 1:13:25There are no long strokes.
1:13:25 > 1:13:28There are no improvised strokes and Cezanne.
1:13:28 > 1:13:31They are very much the record of individual moments of sensation.
1:13:31 > 1:13:35He wanted to give a kind of exact transcription not of the scene,
1:13:35 > 1:13:37but of his perceiving of the scene,
1:13:37 > 1:13:42so it's a very introverted, sensation and consciousness-based kind of art.
1:13:42 > 1:13:47His project is to tell no lies about painting, invent nothing,
1:13:47 > 1:13:51simply record, and he pursues this project faithfully
1:13:51 > 1:13:55and without swerving for years and years without an audience.
1:13:55 > 1:13:58It's a very strange story.
1:13:58 > 1:14:00He only gets an audience right at the end of his life
1:14:00 > 1:14:03when he doesn't need it. Too little, too late.
1:14:07 > 1:14:12Cezanne was the first painter of the 20th century.
1:14:12 > 1:14:17He wasn't the last painter of the 19th century,
1:14:17 > 1:14:21and young painters like Picasso, Matisse, and a friend of him,
1:14:21 > 1:14:28Gauguin, thought he was the great painter of all the Impressionists.
1:14:28 > 1:14:31Picasso called him the father of modern art,
1:14:31 > 1:14:36the father of all the painters of the 20th century.
1:14:44 > 1:14:46Cezanne had abandoned the fiction
1:14:46 > 1:14:49that a painting is a window into reality
1:14:49 > 1:14:54in which we see a 3D object in a 3D space.
1:14:54 > 1:14:56The rules of perspective and representation
1:14:56 > 1:14:59could now be bent to the will of the artist.
1:15:01 > 1:15:05Still life had become an artistic laboratory for the reworking
1:15:05 > 1:15:07of the visible world.
1:15:09 > 1:15:11This impressionistic approach,
1:15:11 > 1:15:13this challenge to the established orthodoxy,
1:15:13 > 1:15:16became widespread in 19th-century France.
1:15:20 > 1:15:23Artists such as Renoir,
1:15:23 > 1:15:25Monet
1:15:25 > 1:15:29and Gauguin would establish a new language for still life.
1:15:30 > 1:15:33And if the genre could be used as a foundation stone
1:15:33 > 1:15:37for a new type of expression, it would also become fundamental
1:15:37 > 1:15:40in the development of an entirely new art form.
1:15:47 > 1:15:51Photographers started to make photographs
1:15:51 > 1:15:56of still life compositions, mainly because they didn't move.
1:15:56 > 1:15:59The early kinds of photographic processes,
1:15:59 > 1:16:02you had eight-minute exposures.
1:16:02 > 1:16:06Quite quickly, photographers began to use in effect
1:16:06 > 1:16:09the language of art, the still life language of art,
1:16:09 > 1:16:11to develop their technique.
1:16:14 > 1:16:19By the 1850s, you get quite amazing still life photography,
1:16:19 > 1:16:20really quite amazing.
1:16:22 > 1:16:25Artists definitely used photography and responded to it,
1:16:25 > 1:16:28so photography changed the way people saw.
1:16:32 > 1:16:35Once photography itself exists,
1:16:35 > 1:16:41I think it makes suddenly startlingly clear to painters
1:16:41 > 1:16:47both the power of that image and its limitations.
1:16:48 > 1:16:55It's as if artists suddenly completely reel away in horror
1:16:55 > 1:16:58from the photographic,
1:16:58 > 1:17:02so if you look at a Van Gogh painting of irises,
1:17:02 > 1:17:07it's a million miles away from what a photographer would have done,
1:17:07 > 1:17:11and he's emphasising his own expressive interreaction
1:17:11 > 1:17:14with the flowers, as he does in the Sunflowers.
1:17:16 > 1:17:19He shows them reaching up, he shows them falling down.
1:17:19 > 1:17:25He shows the rapidity of their ascent and their descent.
1:17:25 > 1:17:29They become images of himself but he's also fascinated by the texture,
1:17:29 > 1:17:32which of course you can't capture in a photograph.
1:17:32 > 1:17:38He stipples the paint to create that sense of the seedhead
1:17:38 > 1:17:42and you would stroke the painting if you could, it's not advisable,
1:17:42 > 1:17:46but if you could you would see that it would feel rough to the touch
1:17:46 > 1:17:50like an actual dried sunflower seedhead.
1:17:50 > 1:17:54He's given this almost sculptural element, I would say, in reaction to photography.
1:17:57 > 1:18:02I think photography makes artists scratch their head and think,
1:18:02 > 1:18:06well, what can painting do that photography can't do?
1:18:12 > 1:18:15And from there, suddenly,
1:18:15 > 1:18:19still life becomes the fundamental form of cubism, which is
1:18:19 > 1:18:22the single most significant art movement
1:18:22 > 1:18:25of the whole 20th century and it's all still life.
1:18:27 > 1:18:31Cubism allowed the exploration of an object from every possible angle,
1:18:31 > 1:18:33with artists painting the subject
1:18:33 > 1:18:36from several different viewpoints at once.
1:18:39 > 1:18:42Artists such as Picasso and Braque
1:18:42 > 1:18:44would use still life to provide an anchor point
1:18:44 > 1:18:46for the fragmented planes
1:18:46 > 1:18:50and spatial chaos that became the signature style of the new movement.
1:18:54 > 1:18:58When Picasso is tackling still life, it becomes illegible.
1:18:58 > 1:19:00He plays around massively within that.
1:19:00 > 1:19:02It's still acceptable to audiences
1:19:02 > 1:19:05because we can still read this as, "Oh, it's a still life painting."
1:19:05 > 1:19:09And, as it were, digest what's happening experimentally
1:19:09 > 1:19:13far more easily because it's talking a classical language to us.
1:19:23 > 1:19:25Why is it all still life?
1:19:25 > 1:19:28Because perception itself, how the artist sees has become the subject.
1:19:28 > 1:19:31So, if you paint what everybody sees, i.e. still lives,
1:19:31 > 1:19:32what's on the table,
1:19:32 > 1:19:34what you're really showing is how you see,
1:19:34 > 1:19:37how you perceive this notion that we travel around an object,
1:19:37 > 1:19:42that experience exists in time that the flat image is not doing
1:19:42 > 1:19:45justice to the complexity of our perception.
1:19:45 > 1:19:47Painting becomes a form on philosophy
1:19:47 > 1:19:50and at the moment the painting becomes a form of philosophy.
1:19:50 > 1:19:53Still life becomes the king sitting on the throne of art.
1:20:10 > 1:20:13If art is about the elevation of subject,
1:20:13 > 1:20:16then still life might just be the king.
1:20:18 > 1:20:22It's been there, acting as an artistic barometer, helping us
1:20:22 > 1:20:26explore and explain our relationship with the material that surrounds us.
1:20:29 > 1:20:31The very stuff of life.
1:20:34 > 1:20:38And in the West during the 20th century, there was nothing
1:20:38 > 1:20:40we liked more than stuff.
1:20:42 > 1:20:46Big difference that makes the 20th century
1:20:46 > 1:20:49different from the previous centuries is the status of objects
1:20:49 > 1:20:51themselves because at a certain point in the 20th century it
1:20:51 > 1:20:55became clear that everything's going to be machine-made from now on.
1:20:55 > 1:20:58We come from a world in which everything that we sit on,
1:20:58 > 1:21:01everything that we wear, everything we drive,
1:21:01 > 1:21:03all of our appliances and technology is machine made.
1:21:03 > 1:21:06We live in a machine world, a machine age.
1:21:06 > 1:21:10And at a certain point it's clear that to go on making classical
1:21:10 > 1:21:14still life in the machine age is...it doesn't make that much sense.
1:21:17 > 1:21:21Still life shatters into becoming an ordinary feature of newspaper
1:21:21 > 1:21:24and advertising. It goes to live in advertising.
1:21:24 > 1:21:26It's not recognised as still life any more.
1:21:27 > 1:21:31In the 20th century, if cubists used still life to explore new
1:21:31 > 1:21:35dimensions, it was advertising that fed on its traditional form.
1:21:42 > 1:21:45Now today, in the 21st century,
1:21:45 > 1:21:49still life continues to evolve in surprising ways.
1:21:50 > 1:21:54What I like and interested in, in this particular work,
1:21:54 > 1:21:58is the moment of destruction is the moment of creation itself.
1:22:21 > 1:22:26Throughout my work, I'm exploring the relationship between painting
1:22:26 > 1:22:30and photography and film.
1:22:31 > 1:22:37The painting of Juan Cotan that I referred to in my film,
1:22:37 > 1:22:42Pomegranate, was at the back of my mind for many years.
1:22:44 > 1:22:51There is something quite, I would say, chilling about this painting.
1:22:51 > 1:22:56The more I look at it, the more it keeps on giving and giving.
1:23:07 > 1:23:11So, thinking about Pomegranate and I was thinking about the bullet
1:23:11 > 1:23:15and there is a moment of eruption, there is a moment of interruption.
1:23:17 > 1:23:19I was imagining the seeds bleeding.
1:23:24 > 1:23:26They are still life
1:23:26 > 1:23:30but they are as far as one can be removed from a still life
1:23:30 > 1:23:34because what they actually depict is an event that
1:23:34 > 1:23:39happened in the most extraordinary speed.
1:23:39 > 1:23:43A speed that the human being cannot comprehend or conceive.
1:24:23 > 1:24:26I like to make things that have the appearance of something
1:24:26 > 1:24:30you've seen before and are subverted in some kind of way.
1:24:31 > 1:24:34So, these are the flowers that I've taken
1:24:34 > 1:24:38and made moulds of and then cast and then I built on these little
1:24:38 > 1:24:43pustules and sores which are based on syphilis and gonorrhoea.
1:24:43 > 1:24:48And for me, flowers are pretty primitive breeding machines.
1:24:48 > 1:24:49They're basically there to procreate,
1:24:49 > 1:24:52that's all they are, they're sexual creatures.
1:24:52 > 1:24:55So, I wanted to make them look like sexual breeding machines.
1:25:01 > 1:25:07If nature is a barometer of the times we're living in,
1:25:07 > 1:25:10the environment, then these things could be taken
1:25:10 > 1:25:15as an indication of the pathology of the society that we live in.
1:25:15 > 1:25:19That things are sick and poisoned and that there's a problem there.
1:25:25 > 1:25:29So over here we've got some still life pictures that I made
1:25:29 > 1:25:35and they are recreations of meals that prisoners ate
1:25:35 > 1:25:37on Death Row before they're executed.
1:25:39 > 1:25:42So, basically I decided that what I was going to do was
1:25:42 > 1:25:47photograph them in the style of 17th century Dutch still life painting.
1:25:50 > 1:25:53Which means that you're looking at a photograph of a Chicken McNugget
1:25:53 > 1:25:56through the framework of a vanitas painting,
1:25:56 > 1:26:00which means you're looking at it different from what you'd normally do,
1:26:00 > 1:26:02you're thinking about the futility of life and the
1:26:02 > 1:26:08meaninglessness of the accumulation of worldly goods and idle pursuits.
1:26:09 > 1:26:12This one here, I think is Gary Gilmore.
1:26:12 > 1:26:17Burgers, boiled eggs, coffees and little shots of whiskey.
1:26:20 > 1:26:22A lot of them are really quite touching
1:26:22 > 1:26:25because the meals that they've chosen are from their childhood.
1:26:32 > 1:26:34This is Allen Lee Davis
1:26:34 > 1:26:38and he had a last meal which made it particularly easy for me
1:26:38 > 1:26:41because it was using elements that were present
1:26:41 > 1:26:45in a lot of 17th century Dutch still life. You've got the big lobster.
1:26:49 > 1:26:54I mean, I think they fit in the tradition of vanitas pictures.
1:26:54 > 1:26:59It makes you look at something, reflecting on vanity basically
1:26:59 > 1:27:03and there's got to be more to life than consumption.
1:27:09 > 1:27:13The very term "still life" if you said it to a person in the street
1:27:13 > 1:27:14would sound slightly incongruous
1:27:14 > 1:27:17because one thing that we know about life now is that it's not still.
1:27:17 > 1:27:20It's dynamic, it's moving, it's constantly shifting.
1:27:22 > 1:27:25Still life asks us to arrest a particular moment
1:27:25 > 1:27:28and to look closely, to observe closely
1:27:28 > 1:27:31and that is something we're not used to doing any more.
1:27:33 > 1:27:37Because novelty has such prestige, change has such prestige.
1:27:37 > 1:27:40We're constantly asking, what's new, what's different?
1:27:40 > 1:27:44Still life asks us to look at the overlooked, the familiar
1:27:44 > 1:27:45and to discover depths in it.
1:27:47 > 1:27:50We speak of ourselves as a materialistic society
1:27:50 > 1:27:54but I think the problem is we're not materialistic enough.
1:27:54 > 1:27:56We're hasty in our materialism.
1:27:56 > 1:28:00We constantly want to buy more stuff but then we don't study it.
1:28:02 > 1:28:04Who sat down with something they recently bought
1:28:04 > 1:28:06and actually looked closely at it,
1:28:06 > 1:28:08tried to look how it was put together and tried to
1:28:08 > 1:28:13appreciate the effort, the beauty, the complexity of an object?
1:28:13 > 1:28:16There's so many things that we have around us that are ingenious
1:28:16 > 1:28:20and attractive but that we just don't take the trouble to look at.
1:28:20 > 1:28:23Still life urges us, before we go on another shopping trip,
1:28:23 > 1:28:25stop and take a proper look.