Vase of Flowers in a Stone Niche

Savery painted his signature and the date, 1615, so that they seem chiselled into the stone ledge, and the whole niche is a trick of the eye. Its edge appears to jut out toward you, cracks run through the masonry, and the glass stands close to the brink. The museum reads the picture as quietly uneasy. Much of it sits in shadow, and thorny stems climb straight up through the middle of the bouquet, among the striped tulips, a blue iris and full pink roses. Small creatures have crept in as well. Two lizards cross the ledge, a dragonfly and a little black beetle rest near the glass, and on the other side a big brown rhinoceros beetle raises its horn. Even the arch has a visitor, a fly resting on the stone near the top.