Flower Still Life with a Timepiece

This was painted in Amsterdam in 1663 as a showpiece,, and much of it was costly. The flowers stand in an ornate silver vase on a marble ledge, and beside it lies a gold watch, its case open, a blue ribbon looping over the edge with the winding key at its end. Flower painters before him had mostly built symmetrical bouquets under even light. Van Aelst swings his along a diagonal, from the red poppy at the top down to the carnations spilling over the stone, and lets strong shadow fall across it. Among the blooms sit a bluebottle fly, which stood for the brevity of life, and a white butterfly, which emerges from a caterpillar and so stood for rebirth. Low on the ledge he signed Guill.mo van Aelst, the Italian form of his name from his years in Italy.