Ambrosius Bosschaert the Elder was a Flemish-born Dutch still life painter and art dealer. He is recognised as one of the earliest painters who created floral still lifes as an independent genre. He founded a dynasty of painters who continued his style of floral and fruit painting and turned Middelburg into the leading centre for flower painting in the Dutch Republic.
Still-Life of Flowers, 1614, J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles.
Still-Life with flowers, 1618, Hallwyl Museum, Stockholm.
Vase of flowers in a window, 1618, Mauritshuis, The Hague.
A still life is a work of art depicting mostly inanimate subject matter, typically commonplace objects which are either natural or human-made.
Juan Sánchez Cotán, Still Life with Game Fowl, Vegetables and Fruits (1602), Museo del Prado, Madrid
Still life on a 2nd-century mosaic, with fish, poultry, dates and vegetables from the Vatican museum
Glass bowl of fruit and vases. Roman wall painting in Pompeii (around 70 AD), Naples National Archaeological Museum, Naples, Italy
Hans Memling (1430–1494), Vase of Flowers (1480), Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid. According to some scholars the Vase of Flowers is filled with religious symbolism.
