七面鳥のパイのある静物

Everything on this 1627 table is a small boast about how far Dutch ships now reached. The centrepiece is a pie topped with the head and tail feathers of a turkey, a bird from the Americas that had only lately arrived on European tables. Around it Claesz sets out Zeeland oysters, a Chinese porcelain dish, a nautilus shell from Pacific waters, lemons and olives that could never have survived a Dutch winter. This was Amsterdam near the height of its trading power, and a wealthy household showed that off not with portraits but with a laden table like this. Claesz painted it almost life-size and close to eye level, so the food sits right in front of you, half-eaten, the lemon already peeled in one loose spiral.