Flowers in a gilded tazza 

Jan Brueghel the Younger painted this still life, "Flowers in a Gilded Tazza" during the Baroque era, a time marked by opulence, religious conflict, and nascent global trade. In this period, the rising merchant class expressed their wealth through art patronage and lavish displays of luxury goods. The painting reflects this cultural context, presenting an arrangement of diverse flowers in a golden tazza. These blooms, likely imported from different parts of the world, are a symbol of global trade networks. Within this opulent display, consider how wealth and status were constructed and maintained in the 17th century. Does this tazza represent nature or artifice? The painting invites us to reflect on the relationship between humans and the natural world. What does it mean to arrange and display nature in such a contrived manner?