Georg
Flegel

1566, Olmutz — 1638, Frankfurt. German painter. Information about the years of his training and creative career remained small. Played a significant role in the development of the genre of still life in the Nordic countries. Started, apparently, in the Netherlands, his works bear the imprint of the influence of painting of the Northern Renaissance. He, however, generates samples of pure still life, demonstrating complete independence from the works of Italian painters. Canvas still life with beetle-deer (1635, Cologne, Museum Wallraf-Richartz-Ludwig) is how often this has been in the works of Northern masters, symbolic content. The image of bread, wine, fish — symbol of Christ means the sacrificial mission of Christ, a vow of abstinence from non-Lenten food. Also wrote "trompe l'oeil" (Shelves, approx. 1610, Prague, NAT. gallery), which, becoming a certain sort of still-life, was a success among collectors.

(1566, Olmutz - 1638, Frankfurt am main) was a German painter.

After training in the Studio of a wandering Flemish artist Lucas van Valckenborch, Flegel works in Frankfurt. He was the first German painter of the XVII and XVIII centuries, which, like Haarlem and Antwerp masters

devoted himself to the art of still life. Fruit, cups, bottles, food, etc. - all these inanimate objects, portrayed first as the disparate elements of the film, now acquire a life of its own. Still life is now an independent genre of painting.

Most of the works of Flagella not dated; they are executed between 1610 and 1635. His big picture <Накрытый стол> (Speyer Museum) is an excellent example of a typology, called <Завтраков>in which manner the former isolated location of objects gives way to a genuine synthesis. This world of tangible things depicted with detailed precision, embodies universal harmony.

In the later works of Flagella (1635-1638) food, fruits and flowers are often painted in brownish tones created by the lighting of candles (<Кухня, освещенная свечой>, Karlsruhe, Kunsthalle). The light quickly dying candle gives things a ghostly character; as a motive <ванитас> it makes the viewer think about

the fragility of earthly delights.

Watercolours and miniatures of Flagella (Berlin-Dahlem, Museum), which with extraordinary precision depicts fruits, plants, insects, lie at the origins of the Botanical collections valued in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.

The artist's works are represented in museums in Basel, Brussels (Royal museums of fine arts), Cologne (Museum Wallrafrichartz), Darmstadt, Frankfurt (Historical Museum),

Gotha, Karlsruhe, Munich (Alte Pinakothek), new York (Metropolitan Museum), Nuremberg, Paris (Louvre and Museum of decorative arts), Prague, Stuttgart (State gallery),

Saint Petersburg (State Hermitage), as well as in private collections.