Ein Becher Wasser und eine Rose auf einem Silberteller

Around 1630, newly arrived in Seville and setting up his workshop, Zurbaran painted this on a panel barely the size of a sheet of paper: a plain cup of water and a single rose resting on a silver plate, against total darkness. It looks like a simple exercise in light falling on water and metal, and it works beautifully as exactly that. But to Spanish eyes then, both objects were signs of the Virgin Mary's purity, and the rose has no thorns, a detail pointing to the belief that she was conceived free of sin. Zurbaran earned his living painting saints and monks for Seville's convents. Pure still lifes like this are rare in his hand; only a few are known.