Still Life with Turkey Pie

Entry

Floris van Dijck's Still Life with Cheeses of c. 1615 (SK-A-4821) in the Rijksmuseum shows the initial phase in the development of Dutch still-life painting, while the present painting by Pieter Claesz illustrates the second stage. Van Dijck’s static arrangement has now made way for a lavish display of foodstuffs and sumptuous tableware. There are few overlaps, and the objects have again been set out on a laid table (the corner of which can now be seen). The vantage point is lower, though, and the suggestion of light falling behind the table creates a convincing sense of depth. Claesz’s palette is considerably lighter than Van Dijck’s, but is still relatively colourful and variegated compared to the later, more tonal monochrome works by himself and Willem Heda. This broadly brushed work is one of the largest and most ambitious still lifes in Pieter Claesz’s oeuvre.

Lying on the table is a knotted, oriental chessboard carpet,⁵ on top of which is a plain white damask tablecloth. Grapes and apples are displayed in a large ‘carrack’ or Wan-li fruit bowl on the right, that was imported from China. The reflection on the belly of the flagon on the left shows the table and the faint apparition of the artist at his easel. It is not clear whether the tall flagon, its spout adorned with a fabulous animal, is made of pewter or silver. There is little difference between the tint of the metal and that of the pewter plates, but since the flagon has gilded edges it is more likely to be silver.⁶ A slightly more ornate variant of the flagon is found in three paintings by Pieter Claesz of 1641,⁷ in an almost identical form in several by Willem Heda,⁸ as well as in still lifes by later masters like Abraham van Beyeren.⁹ Unfortunately, no such flagon has survived, either in pewter or in silver.¹⁰

Another de luxe item is the nautilus cup. The shell is set in a gilt mount studded with flowers of blue enamel and crowned with a representation of Fortuna, and stands on a beautifully decorated foot. Cups of this kind were popular in Germany and the Low Countries in the 16th and 17th centuries, and are often depicted in so-called sumptuous still lifes. No comparable specimen of this cup has survived, nor does it feature in any other paintings by Claesz or Heda.¹¹

The turkey pie is a truly glorious dish. On top of the pastry crust are the feathers and head, with a floral sprig in the beak – the remains of the turkey that went into the pie. There is a similar pie, but with peacock feathers, in Still Life with a Peacock Pie, a Ewer and a Roast Pheasant, which is also dated 1627 and is similar in size and ambitiousness to this one.¹² In a slightly smaller and earlier version of c. 1626, the pie is topped with a partridge with white feathers.¹³

The praise that Samuel Ampzing showered on Franchoys Elaut (1589-1635) of Haarlem as a painter of banquet pieces led Vroom to err in 1980 when he attributed several paintings by Pieter Claesz to Elaut, including this one.¹⁴

Jan Piet Filedt Kok, 2007

See Bibliography and Rijksmuseum painting catalogues
See Key to abbreviations and Acknowledgements

This entry was published in J. Bikker (ed.), Dutch Paintings of the Seventeenth Century in the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam, I: Artists Born between 1570 and 1600, coll. cat. Amsterdam 2007, no. 43.