German painter. He acquired citizen’s rights in Frankfurt in 1597 and stayed there until he died. He worked a lot together with the Fleming Lucas van Valckenborch. Flegel is considered to be the most important representative of early modern German still-lifes. He specialized in so-called meals, banquet, breakfast and flower still-lifes.
This ‘trompe l’oeil’ painting simulates a cupboard with diverse objects and a small collection of rarities.
The arrangement of various dessert to form a spiritual scenery, commented in detail in connection with Still-Life with Bread and Confectionary (Städelsches Kunstinstitut, Frankfurt), can also be found in other still-lifes by Flegel. His small-format Dessert Still-Life is dominated by the contrast between a parrot and a mouse, representing the principles of good and evil, respectively.
The mouse is nibbling at the sweets and has already opened a walnut, which, according to St Augustine, is a symbol of Christ, the shell pointing to the wooden cross and the sweet fruit to Christ’s divinity. Confectionery made of crystallized sugar, nuts, figs and raisins, some in a costly Chinese bowl and some outside it, represent spiritual principles which are being guarded, as it were, by the green-feathered parrot sitting on the far edge of the bowl. The religious context is further emphasized by the grapes and the wine glass, and indeed by the carnation. From the late Middle Ages onwards theologians saw carnations as a symbol of Christ’s death on the cross, because of the nail-shaped form of petals and fruit. Furthermore, the coins at the front are probably another reference to the Passion, reminding us of Judas Iscariot’s betrayal of Jesus for 30 pieces of silver.
The unadorned presentation and unpretentious simplicity of so many of Georg Flegel’s still life paintings make him one of the most individual practioners of the art in the seventeenth century. He was moreover one of the earliest still life painters, and he had a widespread influence on younger artists. The contemplative character of his works, and their essential stillness, is remarkable when one considers that he was painting in the Protestant refuge of Hanau throughout the ravages of the Thirty Years War that caused so much destruction throughout most of Northern Europe, and it is tempting to see his work as an introverted reaction to these horrifying contemporary events.
The painting shows a still-life with a dish of oysters upon a brazier, an artichoke in a dish resting upon a loaf of bread, together with a cooked capon and a knife, fork and slices of bread on plates and a silver condiment dish upon a table top. Some of the elements of the still-life, such as the salt or condiment dish, with its distinctive sphinx feet, can be found in other still-lifes of the painter.
The subdued tonality and the distinctively low key palette are typical of Flegel’s maturity in the late 1620s and 1630s, as is the use of a panel made from copper beech.
In the culinary culture of the aristocracy and the patrician middle classes, banquets consisted of six to eight - sometimes even nine - courses and were always concluded by a dessert. Interest in desserts came to a climax at a time when numerous delicacies had been introduced as new luxuries. This was especially true for sugar confectionary, which appeared in still-lifes around 1600 for the first time. The introduction of sugar marked a radical revolution of taste. Initially it was only used for pharmaceutical purposes, but it soon replaced honey as a sweetener and a food.
The crystalline structure of the candied sugar was rendered especially accurately by Georg Flegel in his confectionary still-life. His painting shows candied fruit on a table in the foreground, including two figs on the right, encrusted with large sugar crystals. Some of the fruits have been cut up in the shape of letters, for example a large ‘O’ can be made out as well as a crumbled ‘A’ beside the loaf of bread. A straight piece of sugar is lying across the loaf like a cross-beam and is being approached by a disproportionately large bee. The earthenware bowl with the blue pattern contains candied fruit dusted with icing sugar, and a brimstone butterfly, whose wings also show traces of sugar, has alighted on it.
Flegel added a religious dimension, because the seemingly innocuous arrangement is full of Christian allusions. For example, the letters ‘A’ and ‘O’ (Alpha and Omega) as the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet are a reference to Apocalypse 1:8 and 21:6, where Christ is referred to as the beginning and the end. The cross formed by the loaf and the piece of sugar emphasizes this aspect even further. Finally, as a reminder of the Eucharist, there is the bread and wine in the dainty glass, with decorations resembling amphora handles which drop down in the form of grape-like clusters at the bottom. The redemptive work of Christ is called to mind by the butterfly, an ancient symbol of the human soul as well of the resurrection, as new life comes forth from a seemingly dead chrysalis. The heart on the right is a specially shaped piece of bread, made from communion wafer dough, and is apparently meant to remind the viewer of the heart of Christ.
In Flegel’s art, sugar has entirely taken over the religious connotations of honey, which was understood as a symbol of ‘spiritual sweetness’ during the Middle ages.
Flegel painted this still-life with the virtuoso precision of a goldsmith or copperplate engraver. If the elements of the composition are first and foremost objects of painterly interest, they also symbolize victory over the earthly life through faith. The bread and wine can be interpreted as Eucharistic symbols of the Body and Blood of Christ, red currants are a familiar symbol of the Passion, and cherries were considered heavenly fruits of Paradise. The painting also contains a reference to time: the cheese may symbolize longevity, the dragonfly - soon to dart away - the present moment. As the heralds of sunshine and summer heat, the dragonfly may be read in the positive sense as a reference to divine creation, or in the negative sense as a symbol of decay and vanitas.
This still-life can be regarded as an allegory of the transitory nature of life.
This still-life is composed of a great variety of forms and materials. The painter adopts a relatively high viewpoint here, providing a plunging view of the food added to the arrangement and other table utensils.
Flegel, Germany’s first purely still-life painter, is believed to have worked in the studio of the Flemish artist Lukas van Valckenborch as a painter of flowers, metalware and fruit, a fact that would certainly appear to be borne out by this painting.
The very Netherlandish-looking bouquet of flowers with tulips, carnations, roses and narcissi, is as superbly painted as the silver vase ornamented with golden mascarons in which it has been placed. The different qualities of silver, gold and pewter, their various degrees of brilliance, hardness and finish have been rendered in painstaking detail. The heavy pewter plates are juxtaposed with an elegant, fine-rimmed silver dish and a golden-lidded chalice bearing a fine statuette of Mars. The blade of the knife at the edge of the table, the dish of hazelnuts, the lid and edge of the brown earthenware jug - all are variations on the artist’s theme.
The display of foodstuffs seems less impressive at first glance, and arranged almost at random. Everything seems to be arranged by pure chance, so much so in fact that an allegorical interpretation seems unlikely. Though the composition may appear purely cumulative, it is nevertheless precisely calculated, especially in the masterly distribution of colour highlights.
