Still Life with Pasty

By 1633 Haarlem painters had made a speciality of the interrupted meal, a table painted in greys, browns and muted greens just after someone has risen from it. Here a silver tazza, a drinking cup on a tall foot, lies tipped on its side, a napkin has been left in a crumpled heap, and a blackberry pie has been cut open and half eaten. It looks like the end of an untidy dinner. The Frans Hals Museum points out that the disorder is entirely staged, and that Heda set down every object with great care. Pictures of costly tableware were his speciality, and the real subject is surface. Silver, pewter and glass each catch the light in their own way, so he could tell them apart with almost no colour at all. The one exception is the lemon, a patch of bright yellow on an otherwise nearly grey table.