Still Life of Fruit and Dead Fowl

Still Life of Fruit and Dead Fowl or A Stoneware jug, Fruit, and Dead Game Birds is a c. 1650 oil-on-panel still-life painting by the Dutch Golden Age painter Harmen Steenwijck.

Here the perishable luxury fruits convey wealth, contrasting with the beer, which is the drink of the masses.

In the image the table is piled high with fish, kitchen ware, fruit and birds.

Soft light cuts from the left on an angle glistening on the glass, jug, fruit and feathers.

The bulbous pears bear a similarity to the shape of the stoneware jug and the curve of the bird wings are repeated in the leaves of the fruit vines.