Member Hours: A Delight for the Senses: The Still Life
Once considered the lowliest of the painting genres, the still life has long been overshadowed in the history of art. A Delight for the Senses: The Still Life is a celebration of this humble genre, exploring nearly 250 years of the tradition from the Dutch Golden Age to America’s Gilded Age.
On the surface, these picturesque arrangements are easy to appreciate for their aesthetic beauty and skillful rendering. A closer look at these sumptuous arrays of objects ranging from the mundane to the luxurious reveals moral undertones and allusions to the transience of life. Loans from the Detroit Institute of Arts and several local collectors will be featured, along with recent bequests from the late Drue Heinz, including the only Dutch Golden Age still life in the museum’s collection on view for the first time.
This event is part of Member Appreciation Week.
Jacob Fopsen van Es, Still Life with Lemons (detail), ca. 1660, Carnegie Museum of Art, Gift of the Drue Heinz Charitable Trust