The Magic of Things

There seems to be an endless number of deceptively real objects depicted in still lifes: dewdrops on fragile flower petals, reflections of light on glass goblets and precious silver dishes, candied sweets in Chinese porcelain, the fine hairs on a peach, the soft feathers of a songbird, the sallow tinge to a skull. However, the details of this genre are not exhausted in the delicate rendering of varying surfaces, because each pictorial element can also symbolize religious or moral content or be a reference to the irretrievability of time gone by— tempus fugit! This volume presents, on large-format plates, a splendid selection of works by some of the principal masters of the still-life genre, such as Jan Brueghel the Elder, Georg Flegel, Sebastian Stoskopff, Jan Davidsz de Heem, Abraham Mignon, and Jean Siméon Chardin. These choice treasures of German, Netherlandish, Flemish, and French still-life painting exemplify nearly all of the different ways of playing with this genre. (German edition ISBN 978-3-7757-2206-3)   Exhibition schedule: Städel Museum, Frankfurt am Main, March 20–August 17, 2008    Kunstmuseum Basel, September 7, 2008–January 4, 2009