6: Still Life Through the Centuries

[Click image for larger version.]

Unknown

Three Vignettes of Fruit, c. 45-79
Fresco, w119 cm x h40 cm (49.6" x 15.7")
Originally from Casa dei Cervi (House of the Deer), Herculaneum, Italy
Now in Naples National Archaeological Museum, Naples, Italy

REFRESHER:

Mentioned in the trompe l'oeil painting yesterday that trompe l'oeil has a long history, and still life as a genre very much does as well.

Paintings are a lot harder than sculpture to preserve, so some of the oldest ones we have come from sites like Pompeii or Herculaneum, which were preserved by volcanic ash/lava. Above would be a painting from Herculaneum, still life frescoes of fruit (primarily pears) and a few vessels. Images of food like this seem to have been common decoration in dining/kitchen areas (including pictures of dead animals, guess we don't get to blame the Dutch anymore), and these works were done primarily in fresco and mosaic (or at least that's almost all that we've found). 

One thing to keep in mind: Herculaneum and Pompeii were effectively countryside towns removed from the cultural center in Rome, so it's uncertain how representative the frescoes/mosaics found at these sites are of the quality that might have been possible at the time. Perhaps there were Roman artists with works so amazing they would melt our eyeballs! Or perhaps a pear is a pear is a pear.

Either way, it looks the human tendency to create and collect pretty representations of all the 'stuff' from our day-to-day lives isn't going anywhere.