3D Gallery
Still Life: The Art of Ordinary Things
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Still Life: The Art of Ordinary Things is a 3D virtual gallery on MyGallery3D, a walkable online exhibition of 16 works. Step inside and explore it in your browser: no app, no headset.
Welcome to a 3D virtual gallery you can walk through in your browser, exploring still life, the art of ordinary things. From fruit bowls to human skulls, these paintings turn everyday objects into symbols, arguments, and illusions.
Ancient Greek artist Peiraikos painted barbershops, donkeys, and vegetables. Critics called him the "painter of vulgar subjects." His work sold at higher prices than the greatest paintings of many other artists. Still life occupied the lowest rung of the official hierarchy of genres, yet buyers could never get enough of it.
In the Dutch Golden Age, artists specialised narrowly. Some painted only flowers, others only fish or kitchen scenes. An estimated 1.3 million pictures were produced in the twenty years after 1640 alone. Prices stayed low except for famous names. Paintings hung in blacksmiths' forges and cobblers' stalls. Even Vermeer struggled to earn a living and died poor.
Vanitas paintings used skulls, candles, and rotting fruit to remind viewers that death makes all equal. The Latin phrase was Omnia mors aequat. Dutch painters from Leiden made this a speciality from the 16th century onward. Meanwhile, the tulip, imported from Turkey, and exotic shells and insects became prized subjects as Europe's horticultural obsession fuelled thousands of new still-life commissions.
Still-life paintings adorned ancient Egyptian tombs. The depicted food was believed to become real in the afterlife. Roman floor mosaics at Pompeii showed glass bowls of fruit. By 1300, Giotto revived the form in fictional niches on church walls. The genre only became independent around 1600, when religious content shrank and painters began arranging objects for their own sake.
Pierre-Auguste Renoir, 1881
Oil on canvas · France
Mr. and Mrs. Martin A. Ryerson Collection · Pierre-Auguste Renoir on Wikipedia
Pierre-Auguste Renoir, 1879
Oil on canvas · France
Mr. and Mrs. Lewis Larned Coburn Memorial Collection · Pierre-Auguste Renoir on Wikipedia
De Scott Evans, 1880s
Oil on canvas · United States
Purchased with funds provided by Carol W. Wardlaw and Jill Burnside Zeno; Roger and J. Peter McCormick Endowment Fund · De Scott Evans on Wikipedia
John F. Francis, 1857
Oil on canvas · Pennsylvania
Purchased with funds provided by Charles C. Haffner III and Mrs. Herbert Alexander Vance; Wesley M. Dixon Jr., Fund · John F. Francis on Wikipedia
Henri Matisse, 1906
Oil on canvas · France
Joseph Winterbotham Collection · Henri Matisse on Wikipedia
Paula Modersohn-Becker, c. 1902
Oil on brown wood pulp board, varnished · Germany
Worcester Sketch Collection · Paula Modersohn-Becker on Wikipedia
Hannah Brown Skeele, 1860
Oil on canvas · Saint Louis
Purchased with funds provided by Charles C. Haffner, III, Mrs. Harold T. Martin, Mrs. Herbert A Vance, and Jill Burnside Zeno; through prior acquisition of the George F. Harding Collection · Hannah Brown Skeele on Wikipedia
William Michael Harnett, 1891
Oil on canvas · United States
Friends of American Art Collection · William Harnett on Wikipedia
Fidelia Bridges, 1863
Oil on panel · United States
Purchased with funds provided by Charles C. Haffner III · Fidelia Bridges on Wikipedia
John Singer Sargent, 1883, 89
Oil on canvas · England
Gift of Brooks McCormick · John Singer Sargent on Wikipedia
Martin Johnson Heade, 1885, 95
Oil on canvas · Florida
Purchased with funds provided by Gloria and Richard Manney; Harold L. Stuart Endowment Fund · Martin Johnson Heade on Wikipedia
William A. Mitchell, 1879
Oil on canvas · Philadelphia
Mr. and Mrs. Frederick G. Wacker Jr. Endowment Fund; through prior gift of Mrs. Albert J. Beveridge in memory of Abby Louise Spencer Eddy · William A. Mitchell on Wikipedia
Raphaelle Peale, 1822
Oil on wood panel · Philadelphia
Gift of Jamee J. and Marshall Field · Raphaelle Peale on Wikipedia
Pierre-Auguste Renoir, 1881, 82
Oil on canvas · France
Mr. and Mrs. Martin A. Ryerson Collection · Pierre-Auguste Renoir on Wikipedia
Claude Monet, 1880
Oil on canvas · France
Mr. and Mrs. Martin A. Ryerson Collection · Claude Monet on Wikipedia
