DOI Heft:
Część 1: Mistrzowie dawni - Mistrzowie nowi
DOI Artikel:Kołtan, Jacek: Martwa natura Philippa Sauerlanda i narodziny nowoczesnej podmiotowości
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.54671#0113
the choice of themes, motifs, and the way they are painted. He also usually used a similar
format of paintings. Like Van Mieris, the artist from Gdańsk signed his works with longer
inscriptions. Although references to the Leydians are obvious in Sauerland’s early works,
he does not make copies of their works, but focusing on the still life genre, he transforms
them in his own style.
The second thesis of our essay is related to the transformation of vanitas motifs,
which in Sauerland’s work reveal their secularized character. The traditional symbol-
ism of transience, which draws on religion, is replaced by the ideas of rationalism,
accompanied by the idea of reason that opens a possibility of overcoming sensual and
emotional limitations. The work becomes an expression of emancipatory processes that
take place at the turn of the 17th and 18th centuries in European culture. Referring to the
philosophical work of Baruch Spinoza (notion of knowledge), we interpret Sauerland’s
work as an expression of the emerging modern ideał of freedom, which was based on
a rationalistic paradigm. It is thanks to wisdom (sapientia) that the subject is able to
transcend the reality of the sensual guise.
In the last part of the text we point to the important role of practical wisdom (pruden-
tia) and art (ars) in the process of liberalization that accompanied the social changes of
the time. Using illusionism, Sauerland proposes an interpretative key to the viewer: the
meaning of life is complemented by art: by making art, understanding art, or collecting
artworks, the rational man can free himself from the fear of his own fmiteness. The func-
tion of this still life is not to remind us of death, but to point out that contemplation of
art is an intellectual and spiritual exercise that allows us to find the right attitude to life.
Martwa
natura...
format of paintings. Like Van Mieris, the artist from Gdańsk signed his works with longer
inscriptions. Although references to the Leydians are obvious in Sauerland’s early works,
he does not make copies of their works, but focusing on the still life genre, he transforms
them in his own style.
The second thesis of our essay is related to the transformation of vanitas motifs,
which in Sauerland’s work reveal their secularized character. The traditional symbol-
ism of transience, which draws on religion, is replaced by the ideas of rationalism,
accompanied by the idea of reason that opens a possibility of overcoming sensual and
emotional limitations. The work becomes an expression of emancipatory processes that
take place at the turn of the 17th and 18th centuries in European culture. Referring to the
philosophical work of Baruch Spinoza (notion of knowledge), we interpret Sauerland’s
work as an expression of the emerging modern ideał of freedom, which was based on
a rationalistic paradigm. It is thanks to wisdom (sapientia) that the subject is able to
transcend the reality of the sensual guise.
In the last part of the text we point to the important role of practical wisdom (pruden-
tia) and art (ars) in the process of liberalization that accompanied the social changes of
the time. Using illusionism, Sauerland proposes an interpretative key to the viewer: the
meaning of life is complemented by art: by making art, understanding art, or collecting
artworks, the rational man can free himself from the fear of his own fmiteness. The func-
tion of this still life is not to remind us of death, but to point out that contemplation of
art is an intellectual and spiritual exercise that allows us to find the right attitude to life.
Martwa
natura...