Do You “Pronkstill”even?: Social Media of the Dutch Golden Age

Carefully arranged plates of food, surrounded by carefully planned out backgrounds; images with hidden meanings; a snap shot of wealth...what may sound like an average display of life through our modern-day social media accounts is actually a well-curated still-life from the 17th century Dutch Golden Age, known as a pronkstilleven (The term refers to a very ornate and ostentatious still life painting, developed in the mid-17th century Dutch Republic). These still-life paintings were an early form of social documentation in which the viewer is invited to look past the surface and see what Paul Claudel labeled as “a coming apart” ...a look into how there is always a different narrative than what we may be able to see in front of us.

Jan Davidsz. De Heem, A Richly Laid Table with Parrots, ca. 1655, Source: Wikimedia Commons.

Dutch still-life paintings were a genre grown out of a prospering and ever-fluctuating trade industry and economy. This ca. 1655 pronkstilleven by Jan Davidsz. De Heem depicts multiple items that would have been traded during the Dutch Golden Age. Besides a richly decorated table, we are treated to a beautiful landscape which sits just behind dark drapes. Not only do the objects on and off the table contain hidden meanings, they represent the world outside the framework of the painting itself (For more information on the hidden meanings of still life paintings, visit “A Small Guide to Still Life Symbols, 1& 2”). 

So how does all of this apply to modern-day social media? 

Well, besides the change from oil paintings to photography, are we not just expressing our material life in the same way? Type #stilllife into the Instagram search bar, and you will find thousands of images like this.

Images meant to showcase a positive aspect of our lives.

But what about what lies just outside the frame?

Is that not more so the truth the world knows about but chooses to ignore in place of a happy, clean, or neatly cultivated aesthetic?