The Fall of Man in a Pantry Closet: Semiotic Readings of a Still Life

Excerpts from the Paper

The Fall of Man in a Pantry Closet: Semiotic Readings of a Still Life
Quince, cabbage, melon, and cucumber, a still life by the Spanish painter Juan
Cotán
painted around 1602 (reproduced Hall 1997, p. 31), appears very simple. Its four vegetables side by side look like an exercise in shape painting. However,
Cotán
was a lay brother in the
Carthusian
order and his painting seems to be set in the food storage of a monastery (Bryson,
n.d
., p. 65). Because of its context, we can wonder if there is a religious meaning in this picture. I will suggest below that there is.
Denotation is the simplest type of interpretation. It is intended to be no more than an "adequate and truthful reflection of the event" (
Lidchi
171). It assumes that things...

..... very capable and well-balanced picture of the fruits and vegetables that it shows. Even on the level of simple depiction, its detail and balanced geometric arrangement gives pleasure. However, if we can use a bit of semiotic knowledge to decode its symbolism and explore its connotations, it will become even more interesting without losing its surface charm.
Works Cited
Bryson, Norman. "Language, reflection, and still life." In Hall op. cit., 65-66.
Hall, Stuart (ed.). Representation. Cultural representations and signifying practices. London: Sage Publications, 1997.
Hall, Stuart. "The work of representation." In Hall op. cit., 13-74.
Lidchi
, Henrietta. "The poetics and the politics of exhibiting other cultures." In Hall op. cit., 151-222.