# Still Life

- By: Pieter Claesz (Dutch, 1596/97–1660)
- Date: c. 1625
- Medium: Oil on panel
- Classification: Painting
- Dimensions: 48 × 76.9 cm (18 7/8 × 30 1/4 in.); Framed: 76.2 × 108.8 × 7 cm (30 × 41 1/4 × 2 3/4 in.)
- Culture: Netherlands
- Credit line: Simeon B. Williams Fund
- Museum: [Art Institute of Chicago](https://www.artic.edu/artworks/21682)
- Rights: [Public domain (CC0)](https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/)
- Picture: https://www.artic.edu/iiif/2/574695d5-6bf3-fe58-a1d5-e6cbb5e10c77/full/!1920,1080/0/default.jpg
- Who can see it: Little Ones profiles and older (museums give no ratings; placed by Invisible Network from the museum's own words)

Around 1600, as the Dutch economy boomed, large-scale still lifes depicting luxury goods emerged as a genre that appealed to a sophisticated clientele. Pieter Claesz. was a leading painter of a type of still life often described as a “banquet piece,” which featured sumptuous foods and opulent serving vessels, typically strewn across an elaborately dressed tabletop. These costly goods—like the lemon, olives, sweetmeats, and lace-edged damask tablecloth in this painting—were sometimes depicted in a state of decay to suggest the transitory nature of coveted earthly things. The well-preserved items here instead celebrate wealth and its lavish display.

Description © Art Institute of Chicago, CC BY 4.0