A quartet of influential still lifes from the Dutch artist Jan Davidsz de Heem will go on display together for the first time since the 17th century at the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge.
The four paintings were produced as part of a series by De Heem, who is considered to be a master of pronkstilleven – a style of ornate still life painting – during the Dutch golden age, depicting displays of sumptuous food and luxurious objects.
Fruits and Rich Dishes on a Table (1640), is being loaned from the Louvre; Still Life with Boy and Parrots (1641), arrives from Brussels City Museum; and Still Life in a Palatial Setting (1642) is being loaned from a private collection.
Banquet Still Life (1643) is the final painting in the series, has a value of about £6m and has been on show at the Fitzwilliam since 2023.
The show, which opens on 3 December and is called Picturing Excess, places the work in a historical context of rapid European expansion around the world, when the wealthy would flaunt their riches via the ostentatious displays painted by De Heem.
The Fitzwilliam said the paintings exhibited the “vast array of expensive and luxurious commodities”, while also referring to “excess and abundance but also colonialism”. One of the paintings, Still Life with Boy and Parrots, includes the images of an enslaved African boy.
The museum said: “While these paintings are intended to show off the owners’ wealth, breadth of knowledge and their increasingly global reach, the paintings also include moral messages, pointing out that these riches do not endure.”
De Heem’s work was known for its lifelike precision, with the Guardian’s art critic Jonathan Jones describing another painting – Still Life with Lobster (1643) – as the “17th-century Dutch answer to food porn”.
Picturing Excess: Jan Davidsz de Heem is at the Fitzwilliam Museum from 3 December until 13 April 2025
