The term "still life" comes from the French phrase nature morte - "dead nature." This is a type of painting, the perception of which, like evaluating a good wine, depends on the tastes of interacting with it. And, as in wine, in a still life all the components are carefully selected so as to make up a composition with a certain meaning. A drink can express in the picture a variety of, sometimes even opposite, things. Using several photos of still lifes with wine as an example, we suggest you to plunge into these secret meanings.
Wine as a reminder of the transience of being
As a rule, in a classic Dutch still life, wine serves as a symbol of the transience of life. Together with other objects that express wilting and death, it reminds the viewer that everything in the world is transient and you need to think about the eternal. This is the meaning of wine in the still life of a 17th-century Dutch artist Jan David de Hem. This value is further enhanced by the image of the skull, a symbol of the meaninglessness of vanity and vanity. Still life with wine or fruit in combination with this drink during the period of de Hem's life and work is almost always connected with the theme of death and the inevitability of the end. They are made in dark colors and correspond to the general philosophy of the era.
Painting, like any kind of serious art, was moralizing at that time. Through it, the author spoke about his understanding of the world and often about the education, real or imaginary, of the customer of such a canvas. Also in still lifes in which wine has a similar meaning, they are found as symbols of withering oysters, empty shells, shells.
Wine as a symbol of the blood of Christ
Very often, secret meanings encrypted in a still life with wine have something in common with biblical subjects and are an allusion to gospel events. This is especially true of the works of ancient painters. In a usual, at first glance, picture - such as, for example, the painting of the Flemish painter Osias Beert "Still life with cherries and wild strawberries", lies a deep philosophical content. The bowl with this drink here symbolizes the blood of Christ, bread - the flesh of Christ, cherry - the Passion of Christ, and strawberries - Paradise. Also in the still lifes with wine there may be a lobster, which tells the viewer who knows how to understand this symbol about the revival, resurrection of Christ and the possibility, after the death of a mortal body in an imperfect earthly world, of a new life. At the same time, the drink is not necessarily in the vessel, but it can also be shed - an explicit allusion to the blood of Christ shed for the sake of the salvation of mankind. The overturned goblet or bowl faces the viewer with an empty bottom.
Wine as a symbol of the fullness of life
But not everything is so gloomy in the relationship of this drink with art. In most modern still lifes, wine no longer acts solely as a symbol of the dark side of life. On the contrary, a sunny drink is able to talk about fun, colorfulness, fullness of perception of the world. It can act as a symbol of celebration, flowering, riot. Often it is portrayed as bright: just as the taste of this drink gives pleasure, it also gives life.
Still life with wine gives the viewer a certain impulse. Encourages him to feel the moment. The paintings of this genre in the modern world are not contraindicated in bright, juicy, saturated colors. This applies, for example, to the work of contemporary artist Everett Spruill, where colors literally gush with life and light.