Day 394 -Still life with lobster


 January 5, 2025

Gallery 617 centers on still lifes, mostly works from the Netherlands but also some examples from Italy and other countries. (The Clara Peters painting discussed on Day 245 has been moved here.) Other than  Peters, I have heard of none of the painters whose works are on view, among them Willem Claes Heda, Sebastian Stoskopff, Balthasar van der Ast, Orsola Maddalena Caccia, Panfilo Nuvolone, and Antonio Leonelli.  I wonder if these painters specialized in painting still lifes. It also occurs to me that the still life genre, as it developed in the 17th century, was dependent on the emergence of a moneyed class of patrons who possessed luxury goods, appreciated the beauty of flowers, and enjoyed food delicacies on their tables and depicted on their walls. I wonder to what extent still lifes replaced religious imagery in the home decor of good burghers and nobles.  Yet these individuals must have felt a certain amount of anxiety about their delight in the material world, or they would not have tolerated painters' inclusion in their works of memento mori symbols - drooping blossoms, insects, and other reminders that all living things must come to an end.

As soon as I entered the gallery, I knew which painting I wanted to write about, Jan Davidsz de Heem's "A Banqueting Scene," painted around 1640-41.  It stands out because of its size (at approximately 6 feet wide and 4 feet high, it's by far the largest work in the room) and because of the huge, bright red lobster near the center of the composition. The rest of the table on which the lobster is positioned conveys opulence and indulgence. There's a lemon, its peel cut off in a neat spiral; a pewter pitcher in which, if you look closely, you see the lemon reflected; a wicker basket with fruits that may have been exotic at the time (or at least not part of an everyday diet), including peaches, grapes, and limes; a gleaming chalice with a  sculpted bird on its cover.  All are painted with immense skill. The table is set by a window or doorway that gives out onto a view of green trees.  Until I read the caption, I didn't notice the clock in the upper righthand corner, a reminder of the passage of time. But oh, that lobster!


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