Still Life

The fine 18th century French artist Jean-Baptiste Chardin is considered to be one of the best artists to have worked in France, and yet so much of his painting was concerned with simple domestic pictures and kitchen scenes like the one we have here. All the objects in this painting are beautifully and harmoniously arranged so that nothing is out of place. And Chardin does this so well. It was his genius to be able to give his full attention to ordinary objects so that he was able to interpret their inner depth and their inner reality. And we sometimes are able to do this ourselves when looking at a beautiful flower or some lovely scenery. But he was able to take very ordinary household objects and invite us to give them our full attention so that we too are brought into touch with a reflection of reality itself, making us conscious of the divine, of being itself, and in so doing, bringing us joy and enabling us to find new life. In this painting, entitled Still Life and painted in 1732, we see some very common kitchen objects. A copper pan, a pottery dish on the right, three white eggs, a pepper mill, and a spring onion which overhangs the stone ledge. Chardin has first of all arranged them so that they make a satisfying composition and he looks at them at eye level rather than from above. And through the painstaking quality of his brushwork, he brings about the transformation of ordinary kitchen items into things of rich beauty. And this is particularly true of the beautifully burnished copper pan which speaks to us of the glory of the created order, the glory of being itself, the being in which we live and move and have our being. It's interesting that all the objects in the painting rest on the ledge of a stone table or shelf, almost as though they were sacred objects placed on an altar. These objects, transformed by the artist's attention and ours, become sacramental, and through them we glimpse something of the glory of God. George Herbert expresses this very well. He speaks about looking at a telescope or glass which we can just look at or, if we wish, look through it to a greater, a divine reality. A man that looks on glass, on it may stay his eye or, if he pleases, through it pass and then the heaven espy. By giving attention to the inner reality of things, we come close to God. Another of Chardin's paintings, which is in the National Gallery in London, is called Still Life with Plums. Here we see once again some very ordinary objects from a French kitchen. There is a wine bottle with a glass of water in front of it and to the right are two French loaves or baguettes. They all stand on a simple tabletop with the dark wall behind. Now, although this is a simple kitchen scene, it could also be an altar with bread and wine and water and even the plums, like the bread and the wine, are fruits of the earth. There's also something else about this painting that strikes us and that is its stillness. It demands our reflection and contemplation. We're drawn into its silence and find ourselves observing what the artist himself has observed. It is as though the spiritual has entered the material world. There is a sense of sacred mystery about this bread and wine as though it were on an altar in church. And thanks to the skill of the artist, we're seeing incarnation or a sacred presence in this painting. It's like the mystery of Christ, the living bread, who is made present at the Eucharist. And how does the artist achieve this? Well, the answer is by giving the various objects in the painting his full attention. And attention is another word for prayer or contemplation. He has recorded everything so beautifully, not with the immediacy of a photograph, but penetrating to the essence or spirit, to the inner life of each item. So, look first of all at the plums on the left and see the surface bloom and ripe juiciness of each one. The wine bottle is beautifully painted, the sheen on the dark glass reflecting the light. And then the half glass of water, so difficult to represent. And above all, the two loaves of bread, living bread, crusty bread, fresh bread, ready to eat, especially with some French unsalted butter, an apricot conserve. This painting shows us how rarely we really look at things with such full attention. The artist encourages us to use the present moment, understanding what we see, and allowing it to penetrate to our inner being and speak to us of its essence or spiritual or real life. And this experience is what George Herbert called being able to find heaven in ordinary. Jesus said, I am the living bread come down from heaven. And what is more ordinary than bread? Finding this greater reality is all about paying attention to the ordinary. One writer called it discovering the holy, not by assaulting heaven in all its glory, but by looking under the edges of the ordinary, giving full attention to the ordinary immediate moment, which is itself real prayer. The importance of this idea is undergirded by the incarnation, which is not just about the birth of Jesus 2,000 years ago, but about the fact that the whole of our world, our being, our lives are interpenetrated by another reality, which we might call the spiritual life, the kingdom of heaven, the presence of Christ, or being itself. Finally, there is just one more thing about this painting. Jesus not only said, I am the bread of life, but he also said, I am the light of the world. And it is the light in this painting which reveals the true glory. It enters from the left and is reflected from the surface of the plums. The window through which it pours can be seen reflected on the surface of the bottle. The light shines through the glass and it is light and shadow which define the crusty surface of the loaf, a loaf which looks good enough to eat. That, of course, is just what we do with bread received at the Eucharist. We eat it. You are what you eat, we are told. So by eating it, we become the bread of life, the body of Christ in the world. Jesus said, I am the bread of life. I am the living bread which came down from heaven. Anyone who eats this bread will live forever.