Still Life
Ottomar Elliger the Elder
1667
An arrangement of vines and apricot branches stands on a table, its edge bearing the legend ”Ottmr. Elliger Fecit 1667”. Despite the naturalistic depiction of fruit and leaves marked by the colours and decay of autumn there is something unnatural about the entire scene, about the way in which everything hovers in the air. Gravity has been suspended. The unnatural aspect is exacerbated by an ear of barley bearing a large grasshopper hanging down from above, describing a diagonal curve down through the entire pictorial space. Generally, butterflies and ears of corn in still lifes from this period refer to life beyond our earthly existence (in Heaven), to the Resurrection and to nature’s God-given cycle of revival. A grasshopper can have several, mutually exclusive meanings within the iconography of the age, but within this composition the most likely reading would focus on its function as a symbol of the soul.
SMK – National Gallery of Denmark, Copenhagen · Image: SMK – National Gallery of Denmark, Public domain · Text: SMK – National Gallery of Denmark (text: Eva de la Fuente Pedersen) (adapted), CC0