HEDA, Willem Claesz.
(b. 1594, Haarlem, d. 1680, Haarlem)

Still-Life

1632
Oil on oak panel, 59 x 76 cm
Private collection

Heda's monochrome banketje still-lifes from the first half of the 1630s form a remarkably cohesive group. He drew from a strictly limited repertoire of objects, which recur in close relationship to one another in many if not most of his pictures from this period. The relationship between them is modulated, but not substantially altered. The roemer containing white wine and the overturned tazza, seen in the present picture, are usually shown, as here, with the roemer behind the foot of the overturned tazza, although they are shown at either side of the composition or in its centre. This motif is found in several works from 1630, and then consistently until 1634, when Heda completely ceased to use it, except for a few substantially later works in which he seems deliberately to have revisited his early period. The staggered arrangement of partly eaten pies on pewter dishes is also found in many of his pictures from this early period, starting with the picture dated 1631 in Dresden.