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The painting depicts a still-life with a large Wan-Li porcelain dish of fruit, a pewter dish of fruit, medlars and nuts, a moth, two Venetian-style glasses of wine, one white and the other red, a knife with an ornamental handle, white grapes, a roll of bread and half a peach.
About half of the known oeuvre of this contemporary of Jan Brueghel the Elder and Ambrosius Bosschaert the Elder consists of flower pieces and still-lifes including bouquets; the other half are still-lifes displaying fruit, oysters and other foodstuffs, often in rather costly containers.
Usually, as is the case here, Beert's still-lifes have a rather high viewpoint, which allowed the artist to arrange his motifs systematically, while one back corner of the table is often clearly visible. The composition of this still-life is typical of Osias Beert: a rather formal array of containers filled with fruit, supplemented with wine glasses, bread, and a knife, interspersed with some small items.
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