Still life

Still Life The picture derives from the collection of the Potocki family, the former owners of the Łańcut Castle. It was made by an unknown artist and dated at the beginning of the 19th century. The small painting presents a still life; it has bright colours and a two-layer composition. In the foreground, there are items arranged on a shelf/ table: an oval wicker basket full of flowers (white and pink roses, orange anemone and some small blue flowers), a blue and white mug wrapped in parchment paper, a spoon, a small pot with a base with blue cornflowers painted on it and a blue plate full of large blue plums. In the background, there is a large glass jar with a top, full of red cherries, a bottle made of dark green glass with a label, and a beige and gold chalice-type vase with a bonsai tree blossoming in red. The background is olive and beige. The painting references artworks discovered in homes that were flooded with lava and buried in volcano ash in Herculaneum and Pompeii. The eruption of Vesuvius took place in 79 and both cities that were destroyed back then, namely Pompeii and Herculaneum, were discovered in the 1780s and since then the paintings known as Pompeii-style became very fashionable among the aristocracy following the current fads. Obviously, the paintings presenting still lives and comprising birds, fruits, fishes and vessels with water, and decorating dining rooms, developed “apart from these styles.” What is more, portraits presenting the house inhabitants, painted directly on the walls, were also encountered. The Łańcut painting, framed in a narrow metal frame decorated with stylised Lesbian cymatium, was exhibited in the Chinese Apartment on the first floor of the castle, more precisely in the Pompeian apartment i.e. the drawing room of this apartment on the first floor of the castle.