Still life

The unreadable signature does not allow us to definitively identify this author of a Central European school, probably Hungarian. But the collector has certainly chosen this work not for the celebrity of the painter, but for his ability to portray a still life in an almost clinical way. In fact, on the table covered with a white tablecloth, appear semblances of foods that seem far away from any set table. The artist was able to delicately, accurately and almost decadently portray the features of the vegetables, the gleam of the knife, the things trapped in the two glass jars, almost belonging to a natural school museum. Defining the detail and the species of the depicted objects is not important here. Instead, what matters is the skilful alternation between shadow and light and the progressive undoing of matter, almost happening directly under the gaze of the spectator. Thus, the picture is also an emblematic reflection of the relationship between death and life, following an illustrious and traditional theme of still life, which draws its distant origins from the dishes and food of the apostles during the Last Supper.