item details
NameStill life
ProductionUnknown; artist; mid-to-late 17th century; Germany
Jan van Kessel II; attributed
Jan van Kessel II; attributed
Classificationoil paintings
Materialsoil paint, canvas
Materials Summaryoil on canvas
DimensionsImage: 711mm (width), 821mm (height)
Registration Number1943-0007-1
Credit lineGift of Dr G.F.V. Anson, T.V. Anson, H.V. Anson and Mrs F.S. Maclean, 1943
Overview
A man of the first order does not eat humble cabbage. Thus, just as his table will shine with gold and silver, so too will it be splendid in its foods.
Giovanni Pontano, Italian poet, scholar, and diplomat (1426–1503)
A lifestyle of splendour is conveyed in this superbly painted still life, which includes a salt-glazed, silver-lidded Westerwald jug, a pewter platter of Norway lobster, an exotic Chinese porcelain bowl, and a prunted roemer (knobbled goblet to you!).
Still lifes often contained symbolism that the people of the time would have immediately understood. Does the shelled walnut symbolise the wood of the Crucifixion cross, or perhaps Christ’s flesh and soul?