Ast, Balthasar van der

Still Life with Fruit and Flowers

c.1620-21; Oil on panel, 40 x 70 cm; Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, Netherlands

A fruit dish and a vase with flowers on the table. Spread out over the table cloth are various flowers shells. Insects are crawling all around and attacking the fruit. On the far right, a spider's web appears to be in the shape of a skull. It indicates that this painting is in fact all about the transience of life. The viewer is reminded of the brevity of life. Two still lifes appear to be combined in this painting: that of the fruit dish and that of the flowers in the vase. Usually, these subjects would be painted separately as Van der Ast's teacher, Ambrosius Bosschaert, did. The artist signed and dated the work twice: left (1620) and right (1621).