Describe and analyze the iconography of Still Life with Fruit and Flowers by Clara Peeters.

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

The ideal answer should include:
1. The luscious fruits, such as grapes and cherries, and flowers represent the abundance of nature as well as symbolize the transience of earthly existence because they will fade and rot.
2. The insects highlight the artist's skill and symbolize the vulnerability of the worldly beauty of flowers and fruit to destruction and decay.
3. The coins and imported silver tazza may commemorate the owner's wealth and the Netherlandish prosperity and trade during the seventeenth century.
4. The iconography of the painting could symbolize the abundance of the natural world and the prosperous mercantile society; however, it could also teach a moral lesson about the ephemeral meaning of worldly possessions or of life itself.