2. Staging Abundance

I have always preferred the English term “still life” (from the Dutch, stilleven) to the French nature morte or Italian natura morta. The experience of drawing a still life subject always feels more like preserving life than drawing “dead nature”. To paraphrase Gormenghast illustrator Mervyn Peake, a still life “holds back from the brink of oblivion” that delicious moment where fruit and vegetables, plucked ripe from the vine, branch or soil, take on their most vibrant colouring and tantalising textures before inevitable consumption or decay.

In this second instalment of a six-part series on the genre of still life we’ll be looking at Italian Renaissance artist Giovanna Garzoni’s staged depictions of plenty.

As a means of sustaining eternal life it is no