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- 17th Century Dutch Painting
- Still Life of Fruit on a Kraak Porcelain Dish , 1617
- oil on panel
- 22 in. x 35 in. (55.88 cm x 88.9 cm)
- Balthasar van der Ast (Middelburg, Netherlands, 1593-1594 - 1657, Delft, Netherlands)
- Dutch
- Museum Purchase: The Henry Melville Fuller Acquisition Fund, 2004.15
- On View
Still Life of Fruit on a Kraak Porcelain Dish is a pivotal work in the oeuvre of Dutch painter Balthasar van der Ast and is widely regarded as the artist’s first great masterpiece. Van der Ast was born in Middelburg in 1593 and studied under his brother-in-law Ambrosius Bosschaert the Elder, one of the founders of the Dutch still life genre.
The natural and manmade objects depicted here document important nuances of social life in 17th century Holland. The Kraak Porcelain dish and shells reflect the collecting tastes of the upwardly mobile. With the opening of the Dutch East India Company imports such as this dish from the Ming Period (1368-1644) became highly prized among the growing upper class. In addition to manmade products, natural objects such as the exotic shells placed in the foreground were highly collectable. Vanitas motifs that abound in later 17th century Dutch art are also present. The wilting leaves and chipped stone ledge reference the temporal nature of life and the promises of spiritual redemption.
