Martwa natura i metamorfozy życia

The aim of the paper is to depict complicated story about the philosophy underling still life in the different cultural and historical context. The author starts from Caravaggio’s Basket of Fruit in which the image of decay is contrasted with the promise of eternal life. It is the point of departure for the interpretation of modern art and the exploration of various ideological references of contemporary still life. Nowadays art loses transcendental insight and focuses on the pure horror of death. Beauty is replaced by disgust. This thesis is illustrated by works of: Pablo Picasso Sam Tylor-Wood, Michel Blazy, and Zoe Leonard. The only consolation which art can offer is grotesque, the eternal return which is showed in Sam Tylor-Wood’s work, or continuous series of transformation in works of Michel Blazy, the image of life which permeates death and death permeated by life.