Art historian O. K. Shikalova will talk about the genre of still life as a mirror of the era: artists encoded religious meanings, scientific discoveries, mysticism, and reflections on time within it. It may seem that still life is just bouquets and fruits, a genre for training the artist's hand and eye. But this is not the case at all; at times, still life became the most "intelligent" type of painting, in which the artist assembled a whole world of hints and symbols. Art historian O. K. Shikalova will explain how in European and Russian painting, objects on the canvas played the role of rebuses. Why did clocks, shells, books, unusual vessels, and exotic fruits brought from distant voyages appear alongside flowers? How did the genre of still life respond to the development of medicine, botany, microscopy, geology, and military art? How did artists use still life to speak about time, generational change, and the boundary between the earthly and the eternal? The lecture will also discuss "encoded" plots - from compositions with skulls and wilting flowers to almost scientific collections reminiscent of cabinets of curiosities. Listeners will learn how still life reflected the artist's worldview and societal moods, whether it was confidence in the order of the universe or a troubling sense of the fragility of life. Where to go in Moscow on weekends, our website will suggest.