A Vase is a Vase is a Vase

It's been a while since I wrote an article here and as I was sorting through my photographs to create a collection for someone special, I got to thinking about the way I re-use props in the tradition of the Dutch and Flemish masters of the 17th century.

Frans Snyders (1579-1657) and Ambrosius Bosschaert (1573-1621) are two artists whose work often shows a same or similar prop. Snyders' huge paintings of market stalls sometimes look like they were created using a 17th century version of cut and paste with dead swans and deer laid over the display of game - not for the faint-hearted but these paintings are really worth exploring. A personal hero of mine, Ambrosius Bosschaert uses the same vase (with slight variations) or the same flowers in a number of paintings.

It is not surprising then that I too follow this tradition and I have favourite props I use in a number of my photographs. Often it's a vase, like the one above which is in the Chinese style, or a roemer glass, a plate or bowl. So if something in one my photographs looks familiar - it may well be!

There is a short video showing examples of my Chinese vase and images of those works by the artists mentioned above in the full blog on my website: https://www.shelleynott.co.uk/a-vase-is-a-vase-is-a-vase/