The Menil Collection The Menil Collection

Flemish painter Cornelis de Heem is renowned for his exquisite still-life paintings, particularly those featuring sumptuous arrangements of fruits and flowers. The oldest son of Jan Davidsz de Heem, one of the most prominent still-life painters of his time, Cornelis inherited his father’s technical mastery and talent for creating intricate and visually stunning compositions. His paintings are characterized by meticulous attention to detail, vibrant colors, and a masterful rendering of light and texture that make his subjects seem almost tangible. While seemingly realistic, the combination of fruits pictured here ripen at different times of the year—the strawberries in spring, the melon and peaches in late summer—and could not actually have been assembled at the same time. In baroque still-life painting, fruit and flowers were popular subjects chosen not only for their beauty but to serve as metaphors for the cycle of life and death. The partly cut, bright orange melon in the center of the canvas may have carried an even more specific symbolic association. In the 16th century, overindulgence in melon was thought to provoke insanity. The sliced melon could therefore serve as a warning against overindulgence and an encouragement toward moderation. Or the exotic fruit may merely reflect the Flemish bourgeoisie’s growing enthusiasm for expensive, imported delicacies.