{"type":"artobject","objectid":34137,"objectnumber":"y1994-77","sortnumber":"1994   77y","displaytitle":"Still Life with Shells, Fruit, and Flowers","department":"European Painting and Sculpture ","classification":"Paintings","datebegin":1630,"dateend":1640,"datecomputed":1635,"daterange":"A.D. 1600-1700","displaydate":"ca. 1630–40","medium":"Oil on wood panel","dimensions":"24.1 x 32.3 cm (9 1/2 x 12 11/16 in.)\r\nframe: 41.3 x 49.2 x 5.1 cm (16 1/4 x 19 3/8 x 2 in.)","dimensionsproposed":"","creditline":"Anonymous gift","markings":null,"inscribed":null,"signed":null,"catalograisonne":null,"creditlinerepro":"","restrictions":null,"nowebuse":"False","secondaryobjectnumber":null,"campuscollections":"false","on_view":true,"accessionyear":"1994-01-01","newaccession":0,"titles":[{"title":"Still Life with Shells, Fruit, and Flowers","titletype":"Primary Title","displayorder":1}],"makers":[{"id":155,"displayname":"Balthasar van der Ast","displaydate":"1593/4–1657; born Middleburg, Netherlands; died Delft, Netherlands; active Delft and Utrecht, Nethrelands","datebegin":1593,"dateend":1657,"prefix":null,"suffix":null,"role":"Artist","displaymaker":"Balthasar van der Ast, 1593/4–1657; born Middleburg, Netherlands; died Delft, Netherlands; active Delft and Utrecht, Nethrelands","displayorder":1}],"depicted":[],"texts":[{"texttype":"Online","textpurpose":"Gallery Label","textentryhtml":"This still life is anything but still. Like his brother-in-law Ambrosius Bosschaert, with whom he trained, Van der Ast painted flower and fruit still lifes but added novelties to the genre that set his paintings apart. Numerous insects, notoriously short-lived, animate the work. Rather than showing flowers in a vase, he depicts individual blooms scattered on the ledge, out of water. Plums are shown in various stages of ripeness; one has been bruised or partially eaten. The tropical shells arrayed in the foreground, a firm nod to the Dutch global empire, had likely been transported by the East and West India Companies\n\nto Holland, where they were avidly collected. The openings of the shells have been turned from view, emphasizing their forms and surfaces rather than the lives that once inhabited them. Together, these elements may have served as reminders of the fragility and fleetingness of life.\n","remarks":"CSS_17_WLA - Day 1 Installation"},{"texttype":"Online","textpurpose":"Handbook Entry","textentryhtml":"\nIn seventeenth-century Europe, Dutch artists were the leading innovators in the new genre of still life, and the practitioners chose specialties. Balthasar van der Ast, who was established in Middelburg and Utrecht before spending the greatest part of his career in Delft, painted combinations of flowers, fruits, and shells, either gathering the flowers in vases or spreading them on tables, as here. He was one of the earliest artists to add insects, like the worm, bumblebee, and mayfly in this painting. Hidden meanings are common in still life and can range from the cycle of seasons (spring flowers &shy;contrasting with summer fruits) to the continents (the exotic shells evoking distant oceans). On a spiritual level, the still life alludes to the <i>vanitas</i> theme since one of the plums has been partially eaten, and an insect’s life is notoriously short. <p></p><em>Handbook of the Collections, 2013</em>","remarks":null},{"texttype":"Online","textpurpose":"Provenance","textentryhtml":"Private collection (until 1986; sale, Christie’s New York, January 15, 1986, lot 163); private collection, New Jersey (until 1990; sale, Christie’s New York, May 31, 1990, lot 147, bought in; anonymous gift to Princeton University Art Museum).","remarks":"Migrated from 9.35 12/2013"},{"texttype":"Online","textpurpose":"Campus Voices","textentryhtml":"<span lang=\"EN\"><p align=\"LEFT\" dir=\"LTR\">Shifting from the Bosschaert style pioneered by his master, Van der Ast began to paint looser and less symmetrical compositions, featuring a greater variety in the subjects he portrayed. Strewn across an unadorned stone ledge are flowers, shells, and fruits; behind them, across the back wall, spans a soft beam of light. Insects inject the stillness of this arrangement with a sense of movement.</p>\n<p align=\"LEFT\" dir=\"LTR\">Van der Ast plays with the different meanings associated with his compositional elements that may have come to viewers’ minds. The cut flowers and half-eaten plum suggest life’s ephemerality, and yet the liveliness of the insects counterbalances this theme of <i>vanitas</i>. The numerous shells might have served as an admonishment against material possession; perhaps in evoking exotic, faraway lands they also demonstrate an appreciation of the beauty and diversity of God’s creation.</p>\n<p align=\"LEFT\" dir=\"LTR\"></p>\n<p align=\"LEFT\" dir=\"LTR\"><em>Ezra Shin, Princeton Class of 2024</em></p></span>","remarks":null}],"media":[{"id":225870,"uri":"https://media.artmuseum.princeton.edu/iiif/3/collection/PUAMSTU2038497","isprimary":0,"rank":3,"mediatypeid":1,"mediaviewtype":"Labels","restrictions":null,"caption":"PUAM Photo"},{"id":225871,"uri":"https://media.artmuseum.princeton.edu/iiif/3/collection/PUAMSTU2038507","isprimary":1,"rank":1,"mediatypeid":1,"mediaviewtype":"(not assigned)","restrictions":null,"caption":"PUAM Photo"},{"id":225872,"uri":"https://media.artmuseum.princeton.edu/iiif/3/collection/PUAMSTU2038531","isprimary":0,"rank":2,"mediatypeid":1,"mediaviewtype":"(not assigned)","restrictions":null,"caption":"PUAM Photo"}],"hasimage":"true","bibliography":[{"boilertext":"<i>Princeton University Art Museum: Handbook of the Collections </i>(Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Art Museum, 2013)","citation":"<i>Princeton University Art Museum: Handbook of the Collections </i>(Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Art Museum, 2013), p. 201","date":2013,"id":1994,"uri":"https://search.worldcat.org/title/865020505"},{"boilertext":"<EM>Important paintings by old masters: Wednesday, January 15, 1986</EM>, (New York:&nbsp;Christie, Manson &amp; Woods International Inc., 1986).","citation":"<EM>Important paintings by old masters: Wednesday, January 15, 1986</EM>, (New York:&nbsp;Christie, Manson &amp; Woods International Inc., 1986)., lot 163","date":1986,"id":5160,"uri":"https://search.worldcat.org/title/38020790"},{"boilertext":"<EM>Important paintings by Old Masters : Thursday, May 31, 1990, at 2:00 p.m. precisely</EM>, (New York, NY:&nbsp;Christie, Manson &amp; Woods International Inc., 1990).","citation":"<EM>Important paintings by Old Masters : Thursday, May 31, 1990, at 2:00 p.m. precisely</EM>, (New York, NY:&nbsp;Christie, Manson &amp; Woods International Inc., 1990)., no. 147","date":1990,"id":5161,"uri":"https://search.worldcat.org/title/54090050"},{"boilertext":"\"Acquisitions of the Art Museum 1994,\" <i>Record of the Art Museum, Princeton University </i>54, no. 1 (1995): p. 40-79.","citation":"\"Acquisitions of the Art Museum 1994,\" <i>Record of the Art Museum, Princeton University </i>54, no. 1 (1995): p. 40-79., p. 40, p. 43 (illus.)","date":1995,"id":569,"uri":"https://www.jstor.org/stable/3774717"}],"exhibitions":[{"exhibitionid":3627,"citation":"Looking at 17th-Century Dutch Painting Saturday, September 5, 2020 - Sunday, January 24, 2021","isvirtual":true,"begindate":"2020-09-05","enddate":"2021-01-24","uri":"https://artmuseum.princeton.edu/art/exhibitions/3627"}],"geography":[],"terms":[{"id":2053145,"term":"oil paintings","aatid":300033799,"termtype":"Classification"},{"id":2166260,"term":"shells","aatid":300011829,"termtype":"Subject"},{"id":2031635,"term":"Dutch","aatid":300111175,"termtype":"Culture"},{"id":2055802,"term":"still lifes","aatid":300015638,"termtype":"Subject"},{"id":2158048,"term":"insects","aatid":null,"termtype":"Subject"},{"id":2158061,"term":"bees","aatid":null,"termtype":"Subject"},{"id":2171809,"term":"caterpillars","aatid":null,"termtype":"Subject"},{"id":2120449,"term":"flowers (plants)","aatid":300132399,"termtype":"Subject"},{"id":2052977,"term":"paintings","aatid":300033618,"termtype":"Classification"},{"id":2047925,"term":"panel (wood)","aatid":300014657,"termtype":"Materials"},{"id":2167780,"term":"oil paint","aatid":300015050,"termtype":"Materials"}],"classifications":[{"id":2052977,"classification":"paintings"},{"id":2053145,"classification":"oil paintings"}],"cultures":[],"cultureterms":[{"id":2031635,"culture":"Dutch"}],"periods":[],"periodterms":[],"attribute_groups":[{"id":2199321,"term":"European Art","termtype":"Collecting Area"},{"id":2199338,"term":"Nazi-era gaps","termtype":"Provenance & Cultural Heritage"}],"dimensionelements":[{"element":"Overall","type":"Height","units":"centimeters","dimension":"24.10"},{"element":"Overall","type":"Width","units":"centimeters","dimension":"32.30"},{"element":"frame","type":"Height","units":"centimeters","dimension":"41.27"},{"element":"frame","type":"Width","units":"centimeters","dimension":"49.21"},{"element":"frame","type":"Depth","units":"centimeters","dimension":"5.07"}],"packages":[{"packageid":210962,"name":"Z_JS European On View 10 years"},{"packageid":214020,"name":"Gallery_17-CrossCollections"},{"packageid":265624,"name":"Prison Teaching Initiative Project"},{"packageid":246533,"name":"EPS Provenance Nazi-era gaps"},{"packageid":188824,"name":"web_2020_dutch_SL"},{"packageid":278831,"name":"10282025-DAY1-ONVIEW"},{"packageid":206417,"name":"image_descriptions_top250"},{"packageid":197269,"name":"web_highlights -revised 2021"},{"packageid":188751,"name":"web_17th century dutch"},{"packageid":123,"name":"Web_Provenance"},{"packageid":276252,"name":"Nazi Era Sept 2025 list for web"},{"packageid":226588,"name":"2023_ENG448/THR448/HUM448/COM440_02_22"},{"packageid":181958,"name":"web_2020_K1-3"},{"packageid":210960,"name":"Z_JS European Anchors"},{"packageid":207234,"name":"SAB_Gala2021"}],"primaryimage":["https://media.artmuseum.princeton.edu/iiif/3/collection/PUAMSTU2038507"],"displaymaker":"Balthasar van der Ast, 1593/4–1657; born Middleburg, Netherlands; died Delft, Netherlands; active Delft and Utrecht, Nethrelands","displayculture":null,"displayperiod":null,"caption":"Balthasar van der Ast (1593/4–1657; born Middleburg, Netherlands; died Delft, Netherlands; active Delft and Utrecht, Nethrelands), Still Life with Shells, Fruit, and Flowers, ca. 1630–40. Oil on wood panel; 24.1 × 32.3 cm, 41.3 × 49.2 × 5.1 cm (frame). Anonymous gift (y1994-77)","captionhtml":"Balthasar van der Ast (1593/4–1657; born Middleburg, Netherlands; died Delft, Netherlands; active Delft and Utrecht, Nethrelands), <i>Still Life with Shells, Fruit, and Flowers</i>, ca. 1630–40. Oil on wood panel; 24.1 × 32.3 cm, 41.3 × 49.2 × 5.1 cm (frame). Anonymous gift (y1994-77)","published_date":"2026-02-11 10:38:46.344840","campusart":[{"campuscollections":"false","campusart":0,"neighborhood":null,"lat":null,"lon":null}],"extended_content":false}