Clara Peeters’ Knife: The social context of a wedding-knife in seventeenth-century still-life painting.

Abstract

In six still-life paintings by the seventeenth-century Netherlandish artist Clara Peeters, the same ornate silver table-knife rests in the foreground of a well-laid table. The placement of the knife is carefully arranged. The sharp tip of the blade recedes into space and the handle faces outward towards to the viewer. In each of the six paintings, the handle is never obscured by other objects. This positioning highlights the artist’s name that is ‘engraved’ upon its side. The present day scholarship on Peeters' knife offers a limited view of this object. Important areas not addressed the social significance of this knife, and the artistic motivations which compelled Peeters to include this object in her work. In the past few years, there has been a rise of exhibitions highlighting Peeters’ work. The accompanying exhibitions catalogues have observed other objects featured in her still-life compositions through the material culture theoretical lens. This paper seeks to take the same multifaceted view of Clara Peeters’ knife.