Still Life with Thistle and Snake
Otto Marseus van Schrieck
1663
Observers must exercise their imagination in order to understand the artistic and aesthetic mode of expression that the Dutch artist Otto Marseus van Schrieck painted into his peculiar paintings, for what remains today is merely a torso. Time has been unkind to van Schrieck’s paintings. Still Life with Thistle and Snake, signed and dated ”OTTO. Marseus 1663”, is no exception. Originally, the picture, especially the butterflies, would have shone brightly with its myriad colours. All that is left now is a limited palette of mossy greens, ochre yellows, and bluish greens and a meek, unassuming red used for the cyclamen and daisies in the forest floor. With this work Otto Marseus van Schrieck created a special type of painting because he “stole” wings from real-life butterflies and because of his skill at imitating the special structures found in the forest’s soft covering of mosses and lichen.
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