Still life of vegetables and fruit with a silver platter on a ledge This is a homage to Nature’s bounty and the artist’s skill in painterly illusionism. An exotic pineapple and three pomegranates join locally-grown grapes, figs, and plums on an elaborate silver platter, while strawberries spill out of an overly full pottle. Artichokes, asparagus, cucumbers, carrots (or radishes), and an enormous cauliflower tumble out of a large wicker basket. Rijsbrack highlights and celebrates the beauty and variety of these fruits and vegetables transforming them from mere food into high art, immortalising them in the process.

Attributed to Pieter Andreas Rijsbrack (c.1684/90–1748), London, England, c.1720 – 48

Oil on canvas

The Master and Fellows of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge