Still Life with a Carp’s Head

Johann Adalbert Angermayer

Johann Adalbert Angermayer - Still Life with a Carp’s Head
Both still lifes feature as their main motifs the traditional fish species of Czech cooking - carp and pike. The crockery and glasses correspond to the manner of dining of burgher society of the time. The otherwise relatively modest dish of fish could suggest that this is the day of fast. Besides a funnel-shaped glass, goblet of the roemer type was represented, with the traditional raspberry decor - those goblets were used for white wine only and they were produced from the so-called “forest glass”, of the characteristic greenish shade. Before Angermayer, still lifes of similar motifs were created by the Moravian painter Georg Flegel, in whose works we can find similar groups of fish, wine, and bread, which could symbolically express the Eucharist.
date:
measurements: height 27 cm
width 37,5 cm
material: canvas
technique: oil
inscription:
inventory number: DO 5416
gallery collection: Collection of Old Masters

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