Artwork
Still Life with Game and a Greek Stele: Allegory of Autumn
Still Life with Game and a Greek Stele: Allegory of Autumn is an unspecified painting by the Biedermeier artist Georgius Jacobus Johannes van Os. It dates from 1818 and is held in the collection of the Rijksmuseum.
About this work
Overview
Still Life with Game and a Greek Stele: Allegory of Autumn is a painting depicting a table laden with the spoils of a hunt, accompanied by sculptural elements.
Subject & Meaning
The still life combines dead game, hunting paraphernalia, and carved stone reliefs, one Greek and one bronze, to convey an allegory of autumn. The reliefs feature mythological scenes: a huntress, possibly Diana, and putti engaged in a hunt.
Technique & Style
The composition incorporates multiple textures and materials, juxtaposing the naturalism of the still life with the classical references of the sculptural elements.
Context
This painting is part of a pair, with its pendant featuring a relief of Venus, and together they explore themes of hunting and mythology, a common thread in still-life paintings of the period, as seen in the Rijksmuseum's collection.
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Artist & collection
Artist
Georgius Jacobus Johannes van Os
Georgius Jacobus Johannes van Os (20 November 1782 The Hague – 11 July 1861 Paris), was a 19th-century painter from the Netherlands.
