Jan Davidsz. de Heem

He is a major representative of that genre in both Dutch and Flemish Baroque painting.De Heem was born in Utrecht as Johannes van Antwerpen.

His "middle name", Davidsz, is a patronym referring to his father's name: In Dutch a name ending in -sz is like -son in English and Mac- in Scottish, meaning "son of" the rest of the name.

[5] Apart from his two sons, he had several apprentices: Michiel Verstylen, Alexander Coosemans, Thomas de Klerck, Lenaert Rougghe, Theodor Aenvanck, Andries Benedetti, Elias van den Broeck, Jacob Marrel, Hendrik Schoock and Abraham Mignon.

[5] De Heem was one of the greatest painters of still lifes in the Netherlands, combining a brilliance and harmony of colour along with an accurate rendering of objects: flowers, in all their variety; European and tropical fruits; lobsters and oysters; butterflies and moths; stone and metal; snails and sea shells.

Often he would convey a moral or illustrate a motto: a snake lying coiled under grass; a skull on plants in bloom.

An early work shows a chased tankard with a bottle, a silver cup and a lemon on a marble table, dated 1640, in the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam.

A chalice in a wreath, with a radiant bouquet among wheat sheaves, grapes and flowers, is a masterpiece of 1648 in the Belvedere of Vienna.

A wreath around a life-sized Madonna, dated 1650, in the museum of Berlin, shows that de Heem could paint brightly and harmoniously on a large scale.

In the Alte Pinakothek in Munich is a celebrated work of 1653 in which creepers mingle beautifully with gourds, blackberries, orange, myrtle and peach, and further enlivened with butterflies, moths and beetles.

A landscape with a blooming rose tree, a jug of strawberries, a selection of fruit, and a marble bust of Pan, dated 1655, is in the Hermitage in St Petersburg.

[6] A 1645 still life of a feast of fruit and lobster is in the gallery at the Allen Memorial Art Museum in Oberlin, Ohio.