AUDIO DESCRIPTION
STILL LIFE WITH PARROTS
THEME MUSIC
From AEB…Art Education for the Blind.
"Still Life with Parrots" is a painting by Jan Davidzon DeHeem. It's an example of a seventeenth-century "vanitas" still life. A vanitas still life is designed to covey a moral message. Vanitas painters filled their still lifes with luxurious and richly sumptuous objects. But… they offer viewers enjoyment and pleasure that's fleeting, compared to the more lasting joys and rewards that come from hard work and spiritual beliefs.
Vanitas still lifes are works of overwhelmingly beautiful earthly delights. They are rendered in precise detail. And they are full of symbols.
The following is an audio representation of "Still Life with Parrots" by the Dutch Painter Jan Davidzon DeHeem. It's four and a half minutes long.
CHAMBER MUSIC/PARTY SOUNDS
The year is 1648. The place is Antwerp…today a city in Belgium but in 1648 Antwerp was in Flanders and part of the mighty Dutch empire.
You're at a party of wealthy Dutch people…merchants, artists, traders…all flush with prosperity since the Netherlands has become a great European power. Life is sweet in Antwerp in 1648.
MUSIC/PARTY FADE UP AND DOWN
The musicians and partygoers are behind you, and you're looking at another part of the room….a scene with no people in it. And this is the scene Jan Davidzon DeHeem has chosen to paint.
A table…covered by a red velvet tablecloth with golden tassels. It's overflowing with signs of luxury and abundance….a golden serving dish on its pedestal two feet high…a crystal wine goblet, half filled…a silver wine pitcher… a silver salt shaker…and silver serving plates.
And on those plates, food for the party. A lobster, still in its red shell…a plate of oysters, shucked and ready to be drizzled with nearby lemon wedges…and a small mountain of fruits…fruits that exotic for 17th century Holland. Oranges, plums, peaches, grapes both red and white…a partially peeled lemon rests at the left side of the table. In the center a juicy red pomegranate lies split in two…and next to the pomegranate a melon, its flesh exposed where a large wedge is already sliced out. In front of the table on a low stool rest other exotic items…a pair of conch shells as large as bowling balls…and two peony flower bulbs, still attached to their leaves and stems.
PARROT SQUAWKS BEGIN…
And the final exotic touch…perched above the table are two parrots, one large and bright red with a white fact, and a smaller African gray parrot. Together they oversee this rich, luxuriant reflection of 17th century Dutch prosperity.
If it sounds like a lot of things to be packed into one painting…well, it is. And I left out many other details. But it's the wealth of incredibly realistic details that keeps you looking at the painting…that makes you want to walk over and examine it up close… and so you do.
MUSIC AND PARTY FADES
PARROTS STAY PROMINENT
And when you move close to the painting, your initial impression begins to change. You notice now that the rich velvet tablecloth is slipping off, exposing part of the wooden table. The silver salt shaker is knocked on its side. There's not enough room on this table for everything and the silver serving plates are overlapping, piled haphazardly, causing food to spill off on to the table.
BUZZING BUG SOUNDS BEGIN…
And now you notice even smaller details…insects feasting on the food…a beetle here…a grasshopper there…flies.
THUNDER RUMBLES IN BKGD
And most ominous of all, through a partially raised black curtain behind the table…you see storm clouds fill the sky. The painting now feels a bit disturbing...as well it should. For in typical vanitas style, DeHeem has hidden warnings within his extravagant scene…warnings to be temperate, to guard against the sin of gluttony…to contemplate the brevity of life, the frailty of people, and the vanity of all worldly things.
For 17th century Dutch people, almost every details in DeHeem's painting is a symbol of either sin, the transience of life, or the change of redemption through belief n Christ.
MUSIC AND PARTY SOUNDS FADE IN
And so you step back from this vanitas painting…still appreciating its art, but now unsettled by its foreboding message: "Vanitas, Vanitatis, omnis vanitas."
Vanity of Vanities, all is vanity.
STILL LIFE WITH PARROTS
THEME MUSIC
From AEB…Art Education for the Blind.
"Still Life with Parrots" is a painting by Jan Davidzon DeHeem. It's an example of a seventeenth-century "vanitas" still life. A vanitas still life is designed to covey a moral message. Vanitas painters filled their still lifes with luxurious and richly sumptuous objects. But… they offer viewers enjoyment and pleasure that's fleeting, compared to the more lasting joys and rewards that come from hard work and spiritual beliefs.
Vanitas still lifes are works of overwhelmingly beautiful earthly delights. They are rendered in precise detail. And they are full of symbols.
The following is an audio representation of "Still Life with Parrots" by the Dutch Painter Jan Davidzon DeHeem. It's four and a half minutes long.
CHAMBER MUSIC/PARTY SOUNDS
The year is 1648. The place is Antwerp…today a city in Belgium but in 1648 Antwerp was in Flanders and part of the mighty Dutch empire.
You're at a party of wealthy Dutch people…merchants, artists, traders…all flush with prosperity since the Netherlands has become a great European power. Life is sweet in Antwerp in 1648.
MUSIC/PARTY FADE UP AND DOWN
The musicians and partygoers are behind you, and you're looking at another part of the room….a scene with no people in it. And this is the scene Jan Davidzon DeHeem has chosen to paint.
A table…covered by a red velvet tablecloth with golden tassels. It's overflowing with signs of luxury and abundance….a golden serving dish on its pedestal two feet high…a crystal wine goblet, half filled…a silver wine pitcher… a silver salt shaker…and silver serving plates.
And on those plates, food for the party. A lobster, still in its red shell…a plate of oysters, shucked and ready to be drizzled with nearby lemon wedges…and a small mountain of fruits…fruits that exotic for 17th century Holland. Oranges, plums, peaches, grapes both red and white…a partially peeled lemon rests at the left side of the table. In the center a juicy red pomegranate lies split in two…and next to the pomegranate a melon, its flesh exposed where a large wedge is already sliced out. In front of the table on a low stool rest other exotic items…a pair of conch shells as large as bowling balls…and two peony flower bulbs, still attached to their leaves and stems.
PARROT SQUAWKS BEGIN…
And the final exotic touch…perched above the table are two parrots, one large and bright red with a white fact, and a smaller African gray parrot. Together they oversee this rich, luxuriant reflection of 17th century Dutch prosperity.
If it sounds like a lot of things to be packed into one painting…well, it is. And I left out many other details. But it's the wealth of incredibly realistic details that keeps you looking at the painting…that makes you want to walk over and examine it up close… and so you do.
MUSIC AND PARTY FADES
PARROTS STAY PROMINENT
And when you move close to the painting, your initial impression begins to change. You notice now that the rich velvet tablecloth is slipping off, exposing part of the wooden table. The silver salt shaker is knocked on its side. There's not enough room on this table for everything and the silver serving plates are overlapping, piled haphazardly, causing food to spill off on to the table.
BUZZING BUG SOUNDS BEGIN…
And now you notice even smaller details…insects feasting on the food…a beetle here…a grasshopper there…flies.
THUNDER RUMBLES IN BKGD
And most ominous of all, through a partially raised black curtain behind the table…you see storm clouds fill the sky. The painting now feels a bit disturbing...as well it should. For in typical vanitas style, DeHeem has hidden warnings within his extravagant scene…warnings to be temperate, to guard against the sin of gluttony…to contemplate the brevity of life, the frailty of people, and the vanity of all worldly things.
For 17th century Dutch people, almost every details in DeHeem's painting is a symbol of either sin, the transience of life, or the change of redemption through belief n Christ.
MUSIC AND PARTY SOUNDS FADE IN
And so you step back from this vanitas painting…still appreciating its art, but now unsettled by its foreboding message: "Vanitas, Vanitatis, omnis vanitas."
Vanity of Vanities, all is vanity.