Vanitas vanitatum omnia vanitas

author Kristian Kožul
written by Jasna Jakšić

 

Overproduction, says Norman Bryson at the beginning of his essay on abundance in the genre of still life in the 17th century Netherlands, is one of the symptoms of the industrial age. From the industrial revolution on, the human race, at least in Europe, is used to abundance.[1] Perhaps allocated in various ratios, I would add. But constant production of a surplus is also a trigger and a means for market regulation – the abundance it brings represents in the end a guarantee of further production, rooted as it is in the ideally transparent profit of Protestantism.

 

 


[1] Bryson, Norman: ‘Abundance’ in Looking at the Overlooked: Four Essays on Still Life Painting. London: Reaktion books, 1990.