Still Life with a Gilt Cup

Willem Claesz. Heda, the leading master of the monochrome breakfast piece, painted Still Life with a Gilt Cup in 1635, at the height of his powers in Haarlem. His restrained palette of silvery tones and the meticulous rendering of glass, metal, and food established a standard of still-life painting that was imitated across the Dutch Republic for the rest of the century.