If it ain't Baroque, don't fix it.

 

It shouldn't surprise anybody any more that I would make such a poor joke.

 

 

 Still Life with Silver Ewer 

Willem Kalf, 1660, oil on canvas

 

       This work and much from this era was born from of the loosening of the grip of The Church resulting from the 30 Years War.  As more countries became their own sovereign, as scientific knowledge expanded and the merchant class grew increasing the purchasing power of people who weren't Nobility or Clergy the nature of the demand for art changed.  Art was no longer only for the educated wealthy Nobles or Church officials, it no longer needed the deep allegory only understood by the those classes of people.     

    In this piece, likely painted in Amsterdam between 1655 and 1660, we can see a display of scientific understanding.  Look at the peeled lemon.

 

 

In that lemon you can see the beginning of decay that starts when the skin has been removed.  This is also indicative of how Baroque art often captures a moment in time, while also demonstrating that life will go on; though we see this frame, we know that everything that is organic in this painting by now has long been dust.  The silver and gold accoutrements, if they were based on modeled pieces of pottery are likely in a museum or destroyed, or adorning the shelf of a collector or may even be moldering away in the pantry of someone ignorant of that which holds their Tang.

Realism is also demonstrated in the skin of this unpeeled lemon.  The perceived texture is such that you can almost feel the bumps and holes in the rind.  

Further illustrating this frozen moment of time is the presence of that open watch to the lower right, outside the bowl.  Though it is difficult to make the time out, it is made plain that time is passing, and this is just a moment.

 

The parabolic line created by the China draws my attention to the contents, those biodegradable fruits frozen at this moment before they rot.  The contrast in tones between the fruit and the ornate pitcher and chalice then bring me off the fruit to the precious metals, which again are examples of the opulence growing amongst regular peoples outside the Nobility and the Church, like the growing merchant class of which Kalf would be part.    

The silver pitcher, the Chinese bowl, the ornate gold chalice, are all demonstrations of Dutch wealth that came with increased sovereignty in the area and the wealth brought to the area by a burgeoning merchant class.  Kalf himself eschewed his own painting later in life to be an art dealer.

This painting is really something.  It terrifies me because despite how it's frozen in time it reminds me that I only have so many tomorrows.  What lurks in the shadows?  The light comes from over the left shoulder of the viewer but fails to penetrate further into the room behind the foreground.  What is it we can't see lurking in the dark part of the room behind the fruit?  Is it a mirror of the viewer displaying a reflection as old as the portrait of Dorian Gray?  If I were to own a copy of this I'm not sure where I would hang it.  It's another print I would accept as a gift, and I reckon I'd hang it somewhere easy to see so as to remind me to make the most of every minute with my kids and to maybe do more choring and less scrolling.   

Arthur K. Wheelock Jr., “Willem Kalf,” NGA Online Editions, https://purl.org/nga/collection             /constituent/1430 (accessed June 26, 2023). 

 

Steven Zucker and Beth Harris, "Willem Kalf, Still Life with a Silver Ewer," in Smarthistory,             March 14, 2016, accessed June 26, 2023, https://smarthistory.org/kalf-ewer/.