Still Life
Pieter Claesz
(Dutch, 1597-1661)
1657
Oil on oak panel
Pieter Claesz used the “banquet piece” type of still-life painting as a way to demonstrate his technical skill. The texture of the leaves, the shell of the crab and the various reflections of light seen in the half-filled glass goblet (called a Roemer), are all executed with precision. Still-life paintings were often treated as moralizing or as vanitas images−reminding the viewer of the transience of life and material possessions.