As one walks through the dimly lit rooms housing the â??Natura Mortaâ? Medici â??still lifeâ? collections at the Chazen Museum of Art, it becomes easy to see how the Italian term for still life developed from the word for â??death.â? The botanical subjects of the paintings emerge vividly from an eerie and intense darkness as if they decorated the gates of the Underworldâ??the meticulousness of their creation at once fantastic and frighteningly realistic.
Office of Strategic Communication