Apples and grapes in a basket, with fruit and shells on a stone ledge

Balthasar van der Ast was the pupil and brother-in-law of Ambrosius Bosschaert I, who is acknowledged as introducing the Flemish tradition of still-life painting into Dutch art, after his arrival in Middelburg in circa 1585, having escaped the religious persecution in the Southern Netherlands. Absorbing the influences of his master, van der Ast broadened his pictorial repertoire to incorporate a more diverse selection of objects in his paintings, including shells and different fruits, as exemplified in the present work

In contrast to other still-life painters, including Georg Flegel and Osias Beert, who tended to display a number of different objects across the picture plane with equal emphasis, following Bosschaert’s example, van der Ast would often allow a single dish or basket to dominate the scene. The wicker basket overflowing with apples, pears and grapes here creates a sense of order that anchors the composition, in contrast to the carefully positioned shells and fruit on the ledge, placed in relative isolation to be observed as individual specimens. Like tulips, exotic seashells were highly desirable items in seventeenth-century Holland and vast prices were paid by collectors for the best and rarest examples. The vogue for collecting shells, like tulip bulbs, was speculative and those who indulged were sometimes mocked as schelpenzotten (shell-fools). The satirist Roemer Visscher included a depiction of shells in his famous 1614 book of emblems Sinnepoppen, with the epigram: 'It is odd how a fool will spend his money'. As a consequence, shells in still-lifes have traditionally been interpreted as symbols of vanity and the transience of earthly beauty and possessions, while butterflies, by extension, stand alongside as symbols of rebirth and eternity.