Serving Table

This signed and dated canvas depicts a serving table with plates of sweets, olives and cheese, a glass vessel of water, and a terracotta jar. In this still-life, the painter subtly manipulated a series of forms (edibles and utensils) all derived from primary geometric shapes (circles, spheres and cylinders) and played these against the reticular articulation of the tablecloth and the receding rectangular tabletop.

Tabletop still-lifes were produced by such early seventeenth century Northern artists as Nicolaes Gillis, Floris van Dyck and Clara Peeters. Van der Hamen was beginning to make table-top still-lifes at the end of his life.