Sumptuous still lifes

A magnificent red lobster commands attention here, resting on a delicate blue and white porcelain dish. Jan Davidsz de Heem painted this feast for the eyes around 1650, when Dutch still life was at its peak. Around the lobster you will find lemons with their rinds spiraling down, clusters of grapes, a pomegranate broken open to reveal its seeds, and a tall gilded cup gleaming in the light. Pink roses lean toward a slender glass goblet, while a deep velvet cloth spills over the table's edge. Behind this abundance, a towering stone column and a faraway landscape open the scene up and give it a grand, almost stagelike feeling.

De Heem earned a reputation as one of the finest still life painters around, blending the precise detail Dutch artists loved with the bolder, more dramatic flair he absorbed during his years in Antwerp. Paintings like this were called "pronk" still lifes, from the Dutch word meaning show or display, and they were built to impress. They toasted wealth and the good life, yet they also whispered something more serious. That peeled lemon, the fruit already sampled, and the roses beginning to droop all remind us that nothing this rich stays fresh for long. Enjoy the good things now, the picture seems to say, because they will not wait around.