Still Life with the Pilgrims of Emmaus

High on the dark wall, painted in Dutch, is a line from the Gospel of Luke, with the evangelist's name written after it. In English it reads, abide with us, Lord, for it is towards evening. The two disciples said those words on the road to Emmaus to the stranger walking with them, the risen Christ, whom they would recognise only when he broke bread at their table. Through the arch on the right the three of them are still on the road.

Everything else in the panel is food and tableware, pushed right up to the front edge. The museum thinks the picture probably had a teaching and moral purpose, setting worldly life, represented by the food, against the spiritual life shown in the example of Christ.