Lot 1042 Dα

A silver beaker, butter in a stoneware dish, stacks of cheese, white bread, and a knife handle protruding over the edge of the table form the principal components of this still life. This specific genre is known as a "monochrome banketje", and is characterised by the reduction of tonal variation in favour of a nuanced overall palette in which various objects are presented on a laden table. Two artists in particular, Pieter Claesz and Willem Claesz Heda, both active in Haarlem, were primarily responsible for the development of this motif in the mid-1620s.

The painter of this banketje, Floris van Schooten, was also active in Haarlem. Alongside a small number of biblical motifs, this artist mainly specialised in kitchen and market scenes as well as still lifes. Little is known about van Schooten's life. No evidence has been found documenting his date or place of birth, and the artist is first recorded archivally as a member of the Haarlem "schützengilde" in 1606. He is also known to have married in Haarlem in 1612 and died there in 1656. Van Schooten's early works are heavily inspired by those of Nicolaes Gillis and Floris van Dyck. However, after Pieter Claesz settled in Haarlem in the early 1620s, his works exerted an increasing influence on van Schooten's oeuvre, although Claesz was apparently also inspired by van Schooten, and the two artists are known to have collaborated on at least one occasion (cf. Fred G. Meijer: Twee is niet altijd meer dan één, in: RKD Bulletin 1997, no. 2, p. 16-20).

Aim of the monochrome banketjes was to depict various materials, textures, and fabrics in as life-like a way as possible. For example in this work, the artist skilfully renders the crumbly texture of the cheese and the shimmering surfaces of the tin and silver vessels in a monochrome palette. The most prominent object in this arrangement is the silver beaker placed at the highest point of the image. This beaker reappears in various works by van Schooten, for example a "Still Life with Cheese, a Candlestick, and Smoking Utensils" in the Stedelijk Museum Het Prinsenhof in Delft.

We would like to thank Dr Fred G. Meijer for confirming the authenticity of this work.