Still-Life with Fruit and Shellfish

By 1653, when this small still life was painted, a rare seashell in Antwerp could change hands for a small fortune. The city was a hub of global trade, and exotic shells brought back by Dutch and Flemish ships from distant coasts had become prized collectors' items, kept and displayed in the cabinets of curiosities that wealthy Europeans loved to assemble. Jan van Kessel worked precisely for that taste. Here he sets fruit beside shellfish with a naturalist's care, each shell turned to show its curl and sheen, less a meal than a small inventory of natural wonders. Looking at these shells means looking at luxury goods, the very things a collector might have kept in a drawer nearby, painted so exactly they seem ready to lift from the surface.