Still Life with a Turkey Pie, Pieter Claesz, 1627
The Flemish painter Pieter Claesz fled to the Northern Netherlands in the beginning of the 17th century. He painted a table abounding with luxury products from all over the world: Zeeland oysters, Chinese porcelain, a nautilus shell from the Pacific Ocean, and pepper from India. Turkey originally came from North America. Along with other spices, nutmeg was used in the savoury turkey pie seen here. This popular spice was cultivatedin the Moluccas (Southeast Asia), by enslaved people.