Still-Life of Glass, Pottery, and Sweets

Juan van der Hamen worked in Madrid in the 1620s, at the court of Philip IV, and he was the man who turned the still life of sweets into a Spanish specialty. What is stacked here is luxury: boxes of candied fruit, wafers, and confections of the kind given as formal gifts among the wealthy, set out with glass and pottery in a cool, careful geometry. There is little warmth or clutter, each object placed apart, evenly lit, almost weighed. Van der Hamen was the son of a Flemish guardsman in the royal household, and he built a real career from arrangements like this one before dying suddenly in 1631, only thirty-five.