Stilleven met kreeft en oesters 1670 - 1724

Editor: "Stilleven met kreeft en oesters" or Still Life with Lobster and Oysters, a print by Jacob Gole. It’s Baroque, done sometime between 1670 and 1724. The textures are what strike me first – all those gradations of dark and light playing on the surfaces of the fruit and the shellfish. It’s almost tactile. What captures your eye most in this piece? Curator: It is all rather opulent isn't it? I keep drifting towards that central lobster, laid out so prominently. It makes me think of theatre – a dramatic production with food as the main event. There is a real *sprezzatura* – an artful carelessness - to the arrangement. Everything seems strategically placed to show off its best side, or its shimmer, and capture our hungry gaze. What kind of narrative do you think Gole's suggesting here? Editor: A feast, of course! Maybe one that’s about to be enjoyed…or perhaps, just ended? It's funny, the way the lobster is presented. It feels almost like the main character in a play. Like it should be giving a soliloquy! I hadn’t thought of that “artful carelessness” idea. So is that the *point* of Baroque, to create these exaggerated realities? Curator: Perhaps, perhaps. The Baroque period thrived on precisely this drama, the flamboyant presentation, the illusion of movement, of overflowing abundance! And what could be more representative of such excess than this… *display*. What do *you* feel, seeing all of it gathered in one place? Does it inspire the desire for more, or is there something darker hinted within it? Editor: Hmm, both actually! There's definitely the sense of plenty, but seeing it frozen in time like this, it's also a reminder that none of this lasts. Food rots. We all decay, eventually. Thanks, Jacob Gole, for the existential lunchtime contemplation! I really appreciate your insights; they completely reframed how I see the print. Curator: And you have illuminated something for me, too! Thank you. The performance of food is truly something worth exploring.