Still Life in an Architectural Setting

Created by Jan Fyt (Flemish, 1611–1661) and Erasmus Quellinus, the Younger (Flemish, 1607–1678)

Oil on canvas, 112.4 x 82.9 cm (44 1/4 x 32 5/8 in.)

Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Ernest Wadsworth Longfellow Fund

This sumptuous and theatrical kind of still life is called, in Dutch, a pronkstilleven, a word that refers both to the rarity and beauty of the objects and to the showy, even ostentatious, manner of their presentation. It is generally accepted that at least two painters worked on this canvas, but their identities are not certain. Such collaboration was not unusual; in many large and busy studios, specialists in painting figures, architecture, animals, and other subjects often contributed their individual skills to a single work.