Why Did Pieter Aertsen Paint His First Still Life? with Craig Harbison January 13, 2006

Craig Harbison, an art history professor at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, will give a lecture titled ?Why Did Pieter Aertsen Paint His First Still Life?? on Friday, Jan. 13 at 5 p.m. in Boliou Hall, Room 104. The talk is free and open to the public.

Harbison, a social historian of art, is particularly interested in Flemish still life painting, Netherlandish art, and northern Renaissance art. His talk at Carleton centers on the Pieter Aertsen painting ?A Meat Stall with the Holy Family Giving Alms? (1551). Aertsen was one of the first artists to paint "inverted still life," works in which the still-life elements are placed prominently in the foreground, while the narrative elements are relegated to the background. The subject painting is considered a masterpiece of the genre.

In his talk, Harbison will discuss the contrast between personal charity and the hoarding of meat, fish and other luxuries in the foreground, a contrast that signals the quandary Aertsen intended his painting to pose for viewers. Harbison?s talk will also address the visual novelty of the painting, and more generally, how Netherlanders during this period envisioned the world through art.

The Carleton art and art history department is sponsoring this lecture. For more information and disability accommodations, call the Carleton art and art history department at (507) 646-4341.