The Object: Research and inspiration

 We were advised to take inspiration from the history of art. In my researches attention caught to still life paintings called Vanitas. 

Still Life: An Allegory of the Vanities of Human Life
(oil on oak panel, 1640)
The National Gallery, London

'Still Life: An Allegory of the Vanities of Human Life' by Harmen Steenwyck is a classic example of a Dutch 'Vanitas' painting. It is essentially a religious works in the guise of a still life. 'Vanitas' paintings caution the viewer to be careful about placing too much importance in the wealth and pleasures of this life, as they could become an obstacle on the path to salvation.

Steenwyck employs a very impressive painting technique to give the still life a vivid sense of realism. Using small brushes, he paints the image on an oak panel which is primed and sanded to form a glass smooth ground. By building up the picture with thin glazes of oil paint he manages to realistically convey the wide range of textures that the individual objects possess: the iridescence of the shell, the translucence of bone, the softness of leather, the smoothness of silk, the reflections of metal, the coldness of stoneware, the roughness of rope and a variety of wood surfaces that range from a gloss varnish to a dull matt.

It's really specific genre of still life in which artist uses symbolic objects and all these objects has meanings:  skull as a symbol of death, a shell as a symbol of birth or books to represent knowledge. For my own project I would like this way and to use objects like a symbolism. 

 Harmen Steenwyck - Still Life with Fruit and Dead Fowl

(oil on canvas, 1630)

Harmen Steenwyck - Still Life (oil on canvas)