Still Life with a Glass and Oysters

Oysters on a pewter plate, a half-filled roemer of wine and a knife share a wooden tabletop in this small, quietly luxurious still life. Jan Davidsz de Heem was the great master of Dutch pronkstilleven, the showy still life, yet here he works on a modest scale, giving each surface — the grey oysters, the glinting glass, the warm wood — its own patient attention. The tumbled shells and half-drunk glass suggest a meal just interrupted, a moment of plenty held still.