Still Life with Apples and Vessel
Maker and role
Artist: David Ligare, American, born 1945
Year
2014
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Object detail
Media/Materials
Oil on canvas
Measurements
40 x 50in (101.6 x 127cm)
Credit line
Museum purchase with funds from the McNay Contemporary Collectors Forum
Accession number
2015.161
Object type
Department
Location
Further information
David Ligare's paintings are deeply informed by the art and philosophy of Greco-Roman antiquity. Still Life with Apples and Vessel belongs to one series in which the artist finds inspiration in the Greco-Roman tradition of "first-fruit" offerings. Such gifts, typically vegetables, fruit, and wheat, were given in thanks to the gods for successful harvests, hunts, and other undertakings. Painted examples of such offerings have been found in Pompeii and Herculaneum. In some cases, ceramic fruit or paintings of such gifts were used as stand-ins for the real thing. These stand-ins were thought to possess magical properties that made it possible for them to become the things they depicted. Inspired by this idea, Ligare calls his still lifes Aparchai paintings after the Greek word for "gift of thanks."
Subject period
Public comments
Thank you for posting this lovely and relevant painting.
- RB & Vikki fields posted 3 years ago.