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拍品專文
The inspiration for this beautifully-composed still life of fruit and flowers around a berkemeier can be found in the work of Cornelis’s father, Jan Davidsz. de Heem, although the composition of the wreath in this painting is entirely Cornelis’s own invention. The work can be dated stylistically to the 1670s when Cornelis was less directly under the influence of his father, working in The Hague from 1676. In his still lifes from the 1660s onwards, Cornelis’s work is increasingly characterised by a greater sense of depth and a more subdued chiaroscuro, enlivened with bursts of saturated colour.
Jan Davidsz. had painted a golden ciborium in the niche of a cartouche in 1648 (Vienna, Kunsthistoriches Museum); a roemer on a pedestal in a cartouche encircled by fruit in 1650 (Dresden, Gemaeldegalerie); and a berkemeier in a cartouche encircled by flowers and fruit in 1651 (Berlin, Bode Museum), each with strong Christian symbolism. Cornelis has also charged his small panel with meaning though his careful selection of motifs, most overtly in the wine and wheat, symbols of the Eucharist, and more subtly in the ripe strawberries, which represent the righteous and signify rebirth (strawberries being the first fruit to ripen in spring). However, unlike some of his father’s more heavily emblematic still lifes, for instance his Flower still-life with Crucifix and Skull in Munich (Alte Pinakothek), this painting can also be enjoyed as a pure still life, in which Cornelis has clearly delighted in depicting the pitted lemon rind, the roughly-hewn stone ledge and the many reflections of the window in the berkemeier. Both the structure and palette of the composition are carefully composed, with the vertical of the berkemeier (reinforced by the yellow of the lemon and honeysuckle) balanced by the strong horizontal of the stone ledge. Cornelis painted several other works featuring a berkemeier encircled by a wreath of flowers, including a painting now in the Castle Museum in Norwich.
We are grateful to Dr. Fred Meijer for dating this work to the 1670s on the basis of first-hand inspection.
Jan Davidsz. had painted a golden ciborium in the niche of a cartouche in 1648 (Vienna, Kunsthistoriches Museum); a roemer on a pedestal in a cartouche encircled by fruit in 1650 (Dresden, Gemaeldegalerie); and a berkemeier in a cartouche encircled by flowers and fruit in 1651 (Berlin, Bode Museum), each with strong Christian symbolism. Cornelis has also charged his small panel with meaning though his careful selection of motifs, most overtly in the wine and wheat, symbols of the Eucharist, and more subtly in the ripe strawberries, which represent the righteous and signify rebirth (strawberries being the first fruit to ripen in spring). However, unlike some of his father’s more heavily emblematic still lifes, for instance his Flower still-life with Crucifix and Skull in Munich (Alte Pinakothek), this painting can also be enjoyed as a pure still life, in which Cornelis has clearly delighted in depicting the pitted lemon rind, the roughly-hewn stone ledge and the many reflections of the window in the berkemeier. Both the structure and palette of the composition are carefully composed, with the vertical of the berkemeier (reinforced by the yellow of the lemon and honeysuckle) balanced by the strong horizontal of the stone ledge. Cornelis painted several other works featuring a berkemeier encircled by a wreath of flowers, including a painting now in the Castle Museum in Norwich.
We are grateful to Dr. Fred Meijer for dating this work to the 1670s on the basis of first-hand inspection.