Jacob van Hulsdonck depicted a colorful array of foods and tablewares ranging from an earthenware trencher to delicate Chinese porcelain — an expensive luxury made possible by international trade. For seventeenth-century viewers, the quantity and variety of foods would have represented a utopian world without scarcity or hunger. Partially eaten food and an overturned glass suggest that diners have just departed, leaving insects to explore the remains.
Credit Line: Text courtesy of The Cleveland Museum of Art.
