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Still Life with Sweets
Juan van der Hamen y Léon (Spanish, 1596–1631)
1622
- Medium
- oil on canvas
- Classification
- Painting
- Dimensions
- Framed: 83 x 122 x 7.5 cm (32 11/16 x 48 1/16 x 2 15/16 in.); Unframed: 58 x 97 cm (22 13/16 x 38 3/16 in.)
- Culture
- Spain
- Museum
- Cleveland Museum of Art, European Painting and Sculpture
- Credit line
- John L. Severance Fund
- Rights
- Public domain (CC0), as the museum states it.
- Who can see it
- Little Ones profiles and older: it shows gentle subjects for the very young. How works are placed
View at the Cleveland Museum of Art
About this work
Placed on a simple stone ledge, this bold arrangement includes a wooden box, a dark glass bottle, some walnuts, an elaborate Venetian glass, and several sweets called turrones. These delicacies are a mixture of pine nuts, honey, almonds, and hazelnuts. The picture may not represent an actual meal or snack. Rather, the artist played with contrasts and harmonies of shapes, textures, and colors. During his short career van der Hamen, whose father was from the Netherlands, worked at the Spanish royal court and created biblical pictures, history paintings, allegories, and landscapes. He is best known for his portraits and still lifes.