\paperw19995 \margr0\margl0 \plain \fs20 \pard\tx8790\ATXts240\ATXbrdr0 \f1 The term still life, or \i stilleven\i0 in Dutch, first appeared in the seventeenth century,
when it was used to criticize compositions made up of inanimate objects, as opposed to paintings with human figures in them.The still life became an independent genre of painting in the second half of the sixteenth century, when growing interest in reali
ty and everyday life prompted artists to turn their attention to objects in their surroundings. Much appreciated by collectors, pictures of still lifes often took on complex allegorical meanings that were understood only by a small circle of the elite.
The accurate depiction of flowers fruit and animals turned these works into scientific illustrations of considerable value to early naturalists.\par
Eighteenth-century baroque induced artists to simplify their compositions, setting the objects in a rig
orous spatial structure. Moralizing aspects gradually disappeared from the paintings, which simply became works of a decorative nature, intended to embellish bourgeois homes. \par
\pard\ATXts240\ATXbrdr0 The predominance of landscape and figur
e painting in the nineteenth century soon led to a decline in the still life genre, which was reduced to a compositional exercise and a device for experimenting with new form of expression.
