Still Life with Fruit and Flowers on a Draped Ledge
Maker
Michiel Simons
(Dutch, 1620-1673)
Daten.d.
MediumOil on canvas
DimensionsStretcher: 25-1/2 x 45-1/2 in. (64.8 x 115.6 cm)
Framed: 36 x 53-5/8 x 2-7/8 in. (91.4 x 136.2 x 7.3 cm)
Framed: 36 x 53-5/8 x 2-7/8 in. (91.4 x 136.2 x 7.3 cm)
Credit LineGift of John Bryan
Object number2007.137
Status
Not on viewMichiel Simons, an artist who died in Utrecht in 1673, but about whom otherwise little is known, seems to have been exclusively a painter of still lifes. This example of his work features the classic “ingredients” of Dutch seventeenth-century still life: sumptuous fruits, flowers, and foliage; a half-peeled lemon; a lobster; a patterned porcelain bowl (probably Chinese blue-and-white or Delft ware) and a beaker half-filled with quenching drink. Such paintings have been interpreted to signify the ostentatious abundance of worldly goods in the golden-age Netherlands (the “embarrassment of riches” about which Simon Schama has written), or alternatively the transience of earthly pleasures (the “memento mori” message, sometimes carried explicitly by a death’s-head amid items of luxury). The fruits and flowers represented here quite likely had specific symbolic meanings or associations that have grown more obscure over time. The suggestion of a curtain drawn aside behind the generously spread table adds a theatrical element which may reflect Italianate influences on Simons’s work.
