A fruit still life with a basket of grapes and a squirrel on a table

This is painted on an oak panel, and the back of the panel carries a maker's mark, that of Michiel Claessens, who supplied boards to Antwerp painters between 1619 and 1637. The Prado has been using those marks as a dating tool, which here gives a tighter window than the picture itself does, since the museum dates the painting only to the 17th century. The front holds a basket of grapes with a squirrel helping itself, and a dish of strawberries standing on Chinese porcelain. The royal inventory taken at La Granja in 1766 already described the cup of strawberries on its china plate. At the lower right the panel is stamped with a fleur-de-lis, the collection mark of Isabel de Farnesio, who owned it then.