Jan Mortel's Still Life With Fruit

Art in general is a factor that allows humans to express their creativity, as they apply the essentials of history, media, elements and principles of design. It was those recent class trips, that I had taken to La Salle Art Museum, that instantly allowed me to acquire a deeper passion for art. Soon enough, in the 17th century exhibit, I saw a piece of artwork that was remarkably aesthetic for me. The artwork is ironically titled, “Still Life with Fruit”. The approximate size of this artwork is 16 inches wide by 20 inches long. The artwork dated back to the year of 1689. A Dutchman named, Jan Mortel, born during the year of 1650, was the artist of this artwork. Judging from the artwork, Jan Mortel had a great talent for oil painting. Jan Mortel

The painting titled, “Still Life with Fruit”, was significantly focused on nature. The painting included four different types of fruits, nuts and three different types of insects that were centralized, in front of a column or a pillar. The fruits are painted to depict a loom of grapes, hanging off a stone corner touching a medium-sized fig and a branch connected by three mangoes. To the left of the fruits were three nuts, that were each sized differently. The insects include a monarch butterfly facing the fig, a white moth facing the crusty leaves underneath the fruits, and a huge fruit fly on one of the mangoes. The column was draped with a blue cloth in front of the daytime

The three most dominant elements are form, space, and value. The reason for this is that the inanimate or still objects in the artwork are dominantly three dimensional with illusions of depth and volume, as well as, colors or shades with light values and dark values. The three most dominant principles of design are emphasis, contrast, and balance. The reason for is this is that the artwork displays a contrast and difference towards the values and colors to direct focus and interest onto the work of art. The artwork dominantly consists of these elements and principles to emphasize the relationship and true nature between the insects, brittle leaves, fruits among the inanimate pillar draped in blue cloth. Ultimately, the artwork titled, “Still Life with Fruit”, displayed an aesthetic story that fascinated me. I believe that the artist was trying display the corruption that targets life. The artist might have painted insects preying on fruit around the still atmosphere as a metaphor to compare how the innocence of life can be disrupted by various threats. It was interesting how the artist directed insects to target the fruits. The methods that artists used to give the fruits a realistic appearance was likable. Conclusively, I did not like the restless daytime sky in the