Object: Still Life Painting

Still Life painting reached unprecedented heights in 17th century Amsterdam and the Netherlands.   Painters depicted scenes of such abundant food, flowers, exotics objects, and animals especially monkeys and parrots.   As the VOC and DWIC began establishing a trade in enslaved Africans, these slaves were sometimes included in Still Life paintings or in family portraits, often wearing beautiful clothing.   They were often children, chosen to match or come close to the ages of the younger children in a household.