Still Life and Photography Converge in Treviso Exhibition

An exhibition at the Museo di Santa Caterina in Treviso, curated by Francesca del Torre, Gerlinde Gruber, and Sabine Pénot, presents fifty paintings from the Kunsthistorisches Museum of Vienna, shown for the first time in Italy, alongside contemporary photographs. The show traces the evolution of still life from the late 16th to the 17th century, juxtaposing works like Pieter Claesz's 1656 "Vanitas" with Hans Op de Beeck's 2011 "Vanitas." Featured artists include Francesco Bassano, Lodovico Pozzoserrato, and Jan Brueghel the Elder. The genre, which gained autonomy in the mid-17th century with the Dutch term "still-leven" and later the French "nature morte" around 1750, is explored through objects such as musical instruments, fruit, market scenes, and floral compositions. The exhibition highlights how still life objects, though decontextualized, acquire monumentality and new meaning.