Still Life with Meat, Fish, Vegetables, and Fruit
Jacob van Hulsdonck (Flemish, 1582–1647)
c. 1615–20
Medium
Oil on panel, the reverse prepared with gesso
Dimensions
71.5 × 104 cm
Classification
Painting
Department
European Painting and Sculpture
Museum
Cleveland Museum of Art
Credit
Gift of Janice Hammond and Edward Hemmelgarn
Accession Number
2018.258
Tags
male
About this artwork
Jacob van Hulsdonck depicted a colorful array of foods, and tablewares ranging from an earthenware trencher to delicate Chinese porcelain—an expensive luxury made possible by international trade. For seventeenth-century viewers, the quantity and variety of foods would have represented a utopian world without scarcity or hunger. Partially eaten food and an overturned glass suggest that diners have just departed, leaving insects to explore the remains.