玻璃器皿、陶器与甜点静物

Juan van der Hamen worked in Madrid in the 1620s, at the court of Philip IV, and he was the man who turned the still life of sweets into a Spanish specialty. What is stacked here is luxury: boxes of candied fruit, wafers, and confections of the kind given as formal gifts among the wealthy, set out with glass and pottery in a cool, careful geometry. There is little warmth or clutter, each object placed apart, evenly lit, almost weighed. Van der Hamen was the son of a Flemish guardsman in the royal household, and he built a real career from arrangements like this one before dying suddenly in 1631, only thirty-five.