Table with a Cloth, Salt Cellar, Gilt Tazza, and more

Notable food and tableware lay on a table covered by a square-creased linen damask cloth, with a design pattern visible in dark and light shades. This type of expensive table linen was exported from the Southern Netherlands to the rest of Europe. Its presence here implies a wealthy and neat household. It is meticulously painted, as is characteristic of Clara Peeters. The pewter plates, the elaborate gilt standing cup, the roemer glass, the bread roll and elaborate knife (probably a wedding gift), as well as the salt cellar and the porcelain plate are all also present in other pictures by Peeters.

Salt cellars had been among the most prized objects at dining tables for centuries due to the cost of salt before the existence of industrial methods of production. We can still find traces of this past importance in our language, for example: the word salary derives from the Latin salarium, which described payment with salt in ancient Rome. Among the many and crucial uses of salt are a few that apply to objects in the still lifes of Clara Peeters: it was used to preserve meat and fish such as herring, and to make cheese and prepare olives. 

Who's hungry?

P.S. Clara Peeters is featured among the most famous women artists of the Dutch Golden Age.   

P.P.S. This magnificent painting is featured in our new set of postcards with Food & Drinks in art!  :)