Breakfast Piece with Cheese and Goblet

Elegantly laid tables are a constant theme in Van Es’s still life paintings. Here everything is carefully arranged. In the middle is a large cheese reflected in a shiny pewter bowl. Among bread, oranges, and slices of ham, various expensive items are visible—a Chinese bowl, Venetian glassware, a knife with an ivory handle, and a nautilus trophy. These kinds of depictions of luxury and opulence have often been interpreted as having some sort of moralizing import. But perhaps the artist just wanted to show off his dazzling illusionistic technique.