3-068-412 - Heritage Art/Heritage Images

Electricity: condenser jars, an electro-static generator, and a vase with flowers, (18--?). The painter, whoever he or she was, was probably working in the 19th century, but has inherited several features of the 17th-century monochrome masters, such as Pieter Claesz of Haarlem (1597-1660): such features include the crack in the stone ledge, which serves both as a sign of transience and a test of verisimilitude. But instead of flowers, lemons, butterflies and dewdrops, the painter has introduced a different mystery of the creation: electricity. On the right is a hand-powered electrostatic generator which sends electricity to a Leyden jar in the foreground and sets off the ringing of "Franklin bells" in the red and blue jar, as the two hanging clappers are alternately attracted and repelled between the three inverted cups.