Still Life with Stag Beetle

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.