# Still Life of Fruit and Flowers

- By: Balthasar van der Ast (Middelburg, 1593–1657)
- Date: 1620
- Medium: panel, oil paint (paint)
- Classification: painting
- Dimensions: support: height 39.2 cm x width 69.8 cm
- Credit line: Purchased with the support of the Vereniging Rembrandt
- Museum: [Rijksmuseum](https://www.rijksmuseum.nl/en/collection/object/SK-A-2152--1f809bc46d48b96fd8ac342b8ce52d25)
- Rights: [Public Domain Mark](http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/)
- Picture: https://iiif.micr.io/jygAk/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)

This still life invites close examination of all the details and elicits marvel at the richness of God’s creation: the colourful flowers, the exotic shells, but certainly also the beautiful insects. At the same time, decay is spreading. Fruit shows the first rotten spots, leaves are eaten away by caterpillars and snails and ants drag a dead fly. The painting is thus also about impermanence.