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This
painting is part of the great collection of Dutch and Flemish still-life
pictures bequeathed to the Ashmolean by Daisy Linda Ward in 1940. This
room contains one of the most comprehensive collections of the genre ever
brought together.
Abraham
Mignon
Abraham Mignon was born in Frankfurt in 1640. His parents were Calvinists
from Flanders who had moved to Germany from the Southern Netherlands to
escape persecution. He received his early training in flower painting
in Germany, but the dominant influence on his work after he moved to Utrecht
in about 1664 was Jan Davidz de Heem. De Heem was the best known and most
influential painter of flowers working in the Netherlands in the second
half of the 17th century.
Still Life
The term ‘still-life’ means an arrangement of non-moving objects (either
dead or alive). The art of still-life flourished in the Netherlands more
than in any other country and the term comes from the Dutch stilleven,
meaning motionless aspects of nature. The tulip, now seen as virtually
synonymous with Holland itself, was in fact imported from Turkey in 1560
and became so popular that no Dutch/Flemish flower-painting was complete
without it.
The chief concern of still-life artists was to achieve realistic representations
rather than stylised images, as you can tell from this painting. However,
these works can also have allegorical or religious significance. This
is seen in the inclusion of butterflies, which symbolise the resurrection.
Flowers themselves were seen as symbols of transient life and this meaning
was often emphasised by the inclusion of watches, skulls and hourglasses.
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