Still Life with Nautilus Cup

after Willem Kalf

National Gallery of Art

A tall goblet made with a spiraling nautilus shell on a gold and silver stem, a blue and white lidded, porcelain bowl, an orange, a cut lemon, and a bunched up, woven rug are gathered on a tabletop in front of a black background in this vertical still life painting. Light falling on the objects from our left contrasts sharply with the deep shadow beyond, which makes some details difficult to make out. The objects might be gathered on a silver tray. At the center of the composition, the flagon is made with a shimmering, ivory-colored nautilus shell with its wide opening facing up. The stem is made of gold bands coiling around a silver figurine, which is nearly lost in shadow. To our right, a white porcelain bowl has a rounded bottom and tall sides. It is painted with blue designs around a raised relief showing two people in crimson-red and harvest-gold garments. A utensil sits in the bowl to our right, and the lid, which has a finial in the shape of an animal, rests angled upward, partially in the bowl and partially on the stem of that utensil. A translucent, cylindrical knife handle protrudes toward us, angled to our right, in front of the bowl. A rug with a geometric pattern of rust red, tan, and pine green is bunched next to the bowl, along the right side of the painting. To our left of the nautilus cup, an orange with a stem and green leaves sits next to a bright, glistening lemon at the foot of the cup. Between the two pieces of fruit, the vivid yellow lemon rind has been peeled into a long, curling strip that curves off the front edge of the table.