Courtesy of Hood Museum of Art

About the Painting

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Courtesy of Hood Museum of Art

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Audio by Hood Museum of Art

Still-Life with Grapes, a spectacular painting by the seventeenth-century Dutch artist Jan Davidsz. de Heem, is an exciting example of the still-life genre and a work by one of holland’s most gifted painters. De Heem, a native of Utrecht who spent most of his adult life in the city of Antwerp, was an extraordinarily famous and influential painter of still-life in the northern and southern Netherlands. He was the key figure in the development of pronkstillevens (fancy or sumptuous still-lifes), admired then as now for his uncanny ability to simulate the appearance of fruit, flowers, and beautiful objects fashioned from silver, gold, or other precious materials.

Still-Life with Grapes, a pronkstilleven that probably dates from the 1660s, testifies to De Heem’s standing as an artist of the first rank. A triumph of illusionistic painting in its rendering of textures, space, and the effects of light, it presents a lavish display of natural and manmade objects, including grapes and pumpkins, a costly silver-gilt goblet, delicate wine glasses, and a velvety green cloth with gold fringe. Every item has been depicted with utmost attention to visual truth, and the smallest details — the curling tendrils of a grape vine, myriad tiny insects, and even reflections of the artist’s studio window on the bosses of the goblet—have been meticulously and faithfully represented.

The various objects of the composition are deftly woven together and set into a space that seems continuous with our own. The glowing colors and sparkling highlights enliven the picture visually and, above all, create an impression of richness and splendor. The beauty of the painting, like its content, attracts the viewer’s attention and provides “sweet fodder for the sight”.

Joy Kenseth