Still Life

Still life is one of Willem Heda’s most beautiful paintings. The work, hitherto unknown since the end of the 19th century, was in private collections in France, and its existence was not known not only by experts in this genre of Dutch painting, but also by researchers of the artist’s work. It belongs to the type of composition popular in the 17th century called monochrome banketjes (monochrome banquets) or ontbijties (breakfasts). These are representations of a table on which expensive dishes and leftovers of a meal have been placed in apparent disarray. Two painters were masters of this genre: Willem Heda and the slightly younger Pieter Claesz.
Initially, Heda painted paintings on religious themes, but the greatest fame was brought to him by still lifes, which dominated his work. His first known and signed composition is Vanitas, dated 1628. From 1629 he painted ‘monochrome banquets’ almost exclusively, achieving extraordinary technical proficiency and exceptional mastery in imitating real objects, in the art of illusion for which the Dutch painters of the 17th century were famous.
The Wawel picture, painted in 1637, is one of the nine known and signed Still lifes that were created that year. The 30s and 40s of the 17th century were a period when Heda painted a lot – about seven paintings left his studio a year; these estimates are based solely on previously known, signed and dated works. His best paintings were also created at this time. The painter often repeated the same objects on them – he probably had them in his studio and combined them in various ways.
On the table, covered with a dark green cloth, there are two white tablecloths; one of them is curled up. Its folds cover the lower part of a brass ewer, called ‘Jan Steen’s ewer’ (often appearing in the artist’s paintings), and a silver, engraved mug. On the left side you can see a brass (or silver) dish in the form of a cup with a lid, used to store mustard, and an overturned green glass goblet, called a berkemeyer, lying on a rolled up tablecloth. On the right, the painter depicted a silver tazza. In the folds of the tablecloth, a watch is visible in a decorative case, with a blue ribbon and a golden key. On brass trays of various sizes lie the remnants of a meal: a small ham, a sliced half-peeled lemon, and a half-baked blackberry pie with a spoon in it. Among the partially shelled hazelnuts scattered on the tablecloth, there is a knife with a semi-precious stone handle. The silver, engraved cup is part of the Still Life from 1633 in the Frans Hals Museum in Haarlem and from 1637 in the Musée du Louvre in Paris. The mustard pot was most probably depicted for the first time in his painting, then it appeared in the composition in the Boijmans Van Beuningen Museum in Rotterdam from 1640. It is one of the rarest painted objects – like a watch in an expensive case, painted only in paintings dated 1629–1633 (including a composition from 1631 in the Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister in Dresden). This object, as well as an overturned and broken chalice (seen, among others, in the Dresden painting) are clear indications that make Heda’s compositions interpreted in terms of vanitas – transience, the impermanence of worldly things, the transience of wealth.
It should be remembered, however, that these still lifes were also painted for their purely aesthetic and decorative qualities. They were valued and sought after as a display of exceptional mastery and workshop skills of artists. In addition, they were used to decorate the interiors of Dutch houses.

Prepared on the basis of a text by dr Joanna Winiewicz-Wolska.