This research project reads seventeenth century Dutch still life through the lens of a contemporary painting practice. I contribute to the field of traditional seventeenth-century Dutch still life by activating a different form of perception, one developed through a practical model of looking, thinking and painting. I investigate how still life paintings are intelligent constructions that combine nuanced compositional structures and represented objects. This combination of composition and representation differs in focus and methods between subgenres, and these differences are at the core of this research. The contribution of this research lies in the crafting of a complex methodology comprising three parts: positing a new way of looking at the tradition; writing about the paintings; and making contemporary paintings. Through this methodological approach, I argue that specific compositional and painterly features are typical within different subgenres of traditional still life paintings. I consider these ...