BAROQUE GRANDEUR
EVERLASTING BEAUTIES


In no era was the still life more important than the seventeenth century. Numerous types of still lifes emerged, which were to appeal to and stimulate viewers’ sensory perception.


The genre’s earliest form was the banketjes, or banquet still lifes. An arranged table, covered with culinary specialties, fine vessels, and luxurious textiles, took the foreground in this type of image. Still life masters hoped to achieve the most realistic depiction possible; it was their goal to create the perfect illusion. Photographer Kevin Best now turns the process on its head. With his studies he captures the atmosphere that must have reigned in his forerunners’ ateliers. With meticulousness and a love of detail, Best quotes Dutch still life painters from Holland and Flanders, in particular Pieter Claesz, David Bailly and Willem Kalf, whose pictures he sets up true to the originals. He interprets the Old Masters in a modern manner. At first glance his compositions have the same effect as those of the Old Masters, but a closer look reveals the image as photographic, modifying the traditional mode of observation with an ironic twist.