Still Life with Fruits and Flowers

Van der Ast signed this panel twice. Near the bottom left corner is his name with the date 1620, and at the far end of the tablecloth he signed again and wrote 1621, which is why the Rijksmuseum dates the picture to both years. At its centre sits a porcelain dish heaped with grapes, peaches and apples, with a small vase of flowers beside it, a tulip laid on the cloth. Around them he scattered exotic shells, beetles, butterflies and grasshoppers. Look closer and the plenty is already turning. The museum points out the first rotten spots on the fruit, leaves eaten through by caterpillars and snails, and ants dragging away a dead fly. The panel was bought at auction in 1904 with help from the Vereniging Rembrandt, a society of private supporters of Dutch museums.