Stillleben mit Zinnkrug und zwei Ming Schalen

Still Life with a Pewter Flagon and Two Ming Bowls

The muted colours and simple composition of this still life play down the sumptuousness of the objects. The blue-and-white porcelain bowls are from the late Ming dynasty, of a type recently imported into Holland. The blue has discoloured because the artist used smalt, a chemically unstable pigment.