1645 · Private collection

This painting represents a shell fountain in which the large conch shell filled with water acts as a vase for a floral arrangement of peonies, carnations, tulips and other blooms. Each petal has been carefully drawn with the brush and their sharply defined contours picked out in thin lines of light pigment. The foreshortening of the flowers is adequately handled, but in terms of skill falls short of the best flower painters of the time, who made a virtue of presenting a wide variety of blooms from different angles.Show more