"A Close Look at Still Life with Fruits, Flowers, Game, and Fish" by Jan van Kessel I
Explore the global role Antwerp played in early modern Europe through a still life by Flemish painter Jan van Kessel I that depicts a variety of both local and foreign commodities.
View of Antwerp from Braun and Hogenberg's Civitates Orbis TerrarumThe Metropolitan Museum of Art
Artist Jan van Kessel lived and worked in Antwerp, a Flemish port city that was one of the great mercantile hubs of northern Europe during the seventeenth century.
Still Life with Fruits, Flowers, Game, and Fish (mid-17th century) by Jan van Kessel IOklahoma City Museum of Art
The types of game displayed here are all local to the Low Countries (the area of northwestern Europe that includes the modern countries of Luxembourg, Belgium, and the Netherlands). Hare, pheasant, partridge, and deer were all readily available to hunters throughout the region.
Near the overflowing basket are two varieties of melon: a muskmelon and a slice of watermelon. When first imported from Spain or the eastern Mediterranean, melons were considered luxury goods. By the seventeenth century, they were widely planted in European gardens.
Several mischievous animals have infiltrated the scene and helped themselves to the abundance on display. The animals act as both visual accents and active participants in the scene, as objects and living things.
Here, a cat has found a stray fish to eat alongside a pair of eels. Eels were a popular food in early modern Europe, particularly in the water-locked Low Countries, and could be prepared several ways— grilled, pickled, smoked, or jellied.
One of the more exotic animals here is one that is familiar to us now: the guinea pig. Guinea pigs are native to South America and are thought to have been first brought to Europe in the sixteenth century. They quickly became popular pets.
Behind the right side of the table is a small monkey eating what appears to be an orange. Both monkeys and oranges were brought to Antwerp via established shipping and trade routes. Often, sailors brought home monkeys as pets or supplemental income to sell at home.
Parrots were also highly coveted animals and often considered luxury objects themselves, prized for their intelligence and social personalities. This particular parrot is a type of Amazon parrot, native to the Americas and Caribbean.
This bowl hints at the colonialism and reach of the Flemish in the seventeenth century. The arrival of Chinese porcelain in the Dutch Low Countries in 1603 fueled a market for blue and white ceramics.
Klapmuts bowl with birds on a rock, symbolic objects and flower sprays (ca. 1600 - ca. 1624) by anoniemRijksmuseum
This bowl is called a klapmuts, the Dutch name for a style of hat with a similar shape. This bowl form was most likely created specifically for the Chinese export market as the broad rim gave people a place to rest their spoons, unlike traditional rimless Chinese bowls.
Still Life with Fruits, Flowers, Game, and Fish (mid-17th century) by Jan van Kessel IOklahoma City Museum of Art
While today we associate the tulip with the Netherlands, the flower is actually native to Turkey, first imported to Europe in the late sixteenth century.
Exceedingly fragile and rare, the tulip became an expensive and exciting novelty. The intense interest in the flower resulted in “Tulip Mania” of the 1630s and the bursting of the Dutch Tulip Bubble in 1637.
Content by: Kristen Pignuolo, Curatorial Assistant, OKCMOA
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