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Still Life

probably ca. 1625–30
On view at The Met Fifth Avenue in Gallery 617
Born in Moravia, Flegel trained under a Flemish artist before settling in the mercantile hub of Frankfurt, where he specialized in still-life paintings of meals. Here, he presents the viewer with an enticing array of food and drink on a linen tablecloth. The juxtaposition of the small bird’s carcass on the plate with the living bird on the loaf of bread adds a note of macabre humor to the scene. Such tensions between life and death frequently characterize still-life painting.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: Still Life
  • Artist: Georg Flegel (German, Olomouc (Olmütz) 1566–1638 Frankfurt)
  • Date: probably ca. 1625–30
  • Medium: Oil on wood
  • Dimensions: 10 5/8 x 13 3/8 in. (27 x 34 cm)
  • Classification: Paintings
  • Credit Line: Gift of Dr. W. Bopp, 1921
  • Object Number: 21.152.1
  • Curatorial Department: European Paintings

More Artwork

More Artwork
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Studies of Fruits, Insects and Shells, Georg Flegel German, Watercolor on parchment
Studies of Fruits, Insects and Shells
Georg Flegel
Maria Sibylla Merian
late 16th–mid-17th century
The Preaching of John the Baptist, Bartholomeus Breenbergh Dutch, Oil on wood
The Preaching of John the Baptist
Bartholomeus Breenbergh
1634
Drawing the Eel, Salomon van Ruysdael Dutch, Oil on wood
Drawing the Eel
Salomon van Ruysdael
early 1650s
The Feast of Acheloüs, Peter Paul Rubens Flemish, Oil on wood
The Feast of Acheloüs
Peter Paul Rubens
Jan Brueghel the Elder
ca. 1615
View of Haarlem and the Haarlemmer Meer, Jan van Goyen Dutch, Oil on wood
View of Haarlem and the Haarlemmer Meer
Jan van Goyen
1646

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