Imagine having, in a single bouquet, flowers that bloom in different seasons and on all continents, or having exquisitely wrought vessels that no glassblower or smith could fashion, or a collection of vividly described insects that nature had never produced. Pictures capable of making impossibilities such as these appear eminently possible were the stock-in-trade of seventeenth-century Netherlandish still life painters. This seminar looks at still-life painting as a visual technology through which Netherlandish artists and their publics made sense of the world and their places it it. It will consider various ways in which still- life participated in the pictorial production of Netherlandish culture, with special attention to the role played by the discourse of art in that process. We will investigate the pictorial techniques by which still-life artists re-made the world for visual consumption, and created a pictorial discourse capable of visually demonstrating the paradoxes and possibilities of their own representational artistry. Using readings from seventeenth-century sources, as well as texts by Barthes, Alpers, Stoichita, Schama, Bryson, Foster, and others who have sought to theorize Netherlandish still-life, we shall assess the ways in which seventeenth-century and later commentators have accounted for, and failed to account for, the descriptive artifice of still-life. Our aim will be to develop interpretive strategies that address both the pictorial complexity and the cultural significance of still-life's distinctive modes of generating meaning. Seminar members should have a usable reading knowledge of at least ONE of the following research languages: Dutch, German, French, Italian, Spanish, Latin.

NB: Our pictorial investigations will focus on the pictures in the current exhibition "Still-Life Paintings from the Netherlands, 1550-1720." Those interested in participating in the course are strongly urged to visit this excellent exhibition on view at the Cleveland Museum of Art from October 31, 1999 through January 9, 2000, and to experience its seventy still life paintings-live and in person. (Brusati)