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| Georges Braque Studio with Skull 1938 oil on canvas private collection |
Return of the Skull
The skull is often associated with despair, when – along with the other bones of the skeleton that survive after everything else has decomposed – it can just as well represent durability and strength. Our ancestors viewed it as the catalyst for meditation par excellence. Thus Chateaubriand informs us that the Abbé de Rancé preserved in his monastic cell the skull of his former mistress. In the 20th century the skull returned to still-life painting, first with Cézanne, then with Braque and Picasso, generating fresh reflections on the passage of time.
Still Life
This genre, which in French is called "dead" (nature morte), is in English called "alive." Consider that the Dutch still life, for example, really is alive: the viewer is most commonly invited to the delights of the dining table, always presented as a source of enjoyment existing in present time. Of course in English the word "still" means "silent" as well as "unmoving." This is particularly striking when considering the many still-life paintings featuring musical instruments. Though not being played at the moment, these are without doubt soon to be awakened into sound. And finally, "still" can mean "ongoing." Life continuously renewed.
The Senses and Cubism
Like a painter from an earlier age, Braque sets the skull in context of pleasures experienced via the five senses. Sight is suggested by the palette, brushes, and paint tubes; there are also scrapers and palette knives which point to an aspect of painting involving touch as well as sight. "Do not touch" says the museum guard, but the painting invites it with grainy textures and impasto. Palette knives are markedly more tactile than brushes – closer, in fact, to sculpture tools. We can also make out a guitar, seemingly assembling itself under our eyes, and a frequent presence in Cubist pictures. The pitcher of water or perhaps wine connotes taste, as do bottles in Picasso. And another classic Cubist prop: the pipe, conveying its aroma.
– translated and adapted from Le Musée imaginaire de Michel Butor: 105 œuvres décisives de la peinture occidentale (Paris: Flammarion, 2019)