Still life

<em>A man of the first order does not eat humble cabbage. Thus, just as his table will shine with gold and silver, so too will it be splendid in its foods.</em>

Giovanni Pontano, Italian poet, scholar, and diplomat (1426–1503)

A lifestyle of splendour is conveyed in this superbly painted still life, which includes a salt-glazed, silver-lidded Westerwald jug, a pewter platter of Norway lobster, an exotic Chinese porcelain bowl, and a prunted roemer (knobbled goblet to you!).

Still lifes often contained symbolism that the people of the time would have immediately understood. Does the shelled walnut symbolise the wood of the Crucifixion cross, or perhaps Christ’s flesh and soul?