Still Life with Assorted Fruit

An elegant knife diagonally balanced on the edge of the table connects the array with the viewer and establishes the illusion of the still life. Along with a thorny branch of golden gooseberries, the overturned silver spoon with a finial in the form of a figure of a Roman centurion direct the eye into the composition. All the fruits and nuts depicted by Claesz were readily available in the early seventeenth-century Netherlands. Delicate strawberries (left) and vibrant red cherries are displayed in imported blue and white Chinese porcelain dishes (sometimes referred to as *kraak* porcelain, a product from the reign of the Chinese emperor Wanli (1573-1619)). The polished pewter platter reflects the deep hues of white and red grapes and two golden apples. A pair of brown medlars, the fruit of a shrub in the rose family that was only edible once rotten, lie close to the front edge of the table. Scattered across its surface are whole and broken hazelnuts, and at the center a single walnut, wavy brushstrokes describing its shell, leans against the platter.