Still Life with a Roemer
Jan Davidsz. de Heem
1652
Food has been a theme in art since ancient times. From classical Greece and Rome, murals and mosaics with fruit and luxury foods have been preserved. In the written sources of ancient renowned painters and their competitions at being the best to imitate nature, one of the most beloved and quoted anecdotes deals precisely with Zeuxis’ painting of fruit. When the Dutch painter Philips Angel (ca. 1618 – after 1664) published a poetic tribute to painting, Lof der schilder-kunst (1642), he began his text with this anecdote. In 1652 the Flemish/Dutch still life painter Jan Davidsz. de Heem (1606-83/84) signed and dated his painting Still Life with a Roemer. The table is covered for a snack with plum, apricot, peach, grapes, some seafood and the indispensable lemon. The painter may have been sending a greeting to Zeuxis with the grape, which appears as a reflection in the yellow bright light on the glass of white wine.
SMK – National Gallery of Denmark, Copenhagen · Image: SMK – National Gallery of Denmark, Public domain · Text: SMK – National Gallery of Denmark (text: Eva de la Fuente Pedersen) (adapted), CC0