Still Life with Ham

Gerret Willemsz Heda

National Gallery of Art

Pewter and silver plates and vessels, a baked ham, roll of bread, and a rumpled, pearl-white cloth are arranged across a table covered with a dark, olive-green cloth in this vertical still life painting. The table extends into the scene from the right and ends just short of the left edge of the composition. The scrunched white cloth falls down the front side of the table, and many of the objects are arranged on it or around its perimeter. To our left, one lip of a pewter plate hangs over the edge of the table and another lies on the white cloth. Two glasses with thick, textured stems and yellow liquid in straight, flaring bowls sit on the plate. Another plate holds a partially carved ham just behind and to our right of the first. The skin of the animal has been peeled back to show the bubbled, white underside. The flesh is white around the edge of the roast and pink at the center. A tall, narrow, clear fluted glass with an intricately woven stem is next to a pewter pitcher with its lid propped open to rest up against the handle. Next, a silver salt cellar has a lobed base that curves in and up to a scallop-edged platform. Another lobed vessel, this one with a handle and a hinged lid, lies open on its side across two overlapping plates at the front of the table. The spiraling end of a utensil protrudes from the vessel. A glass textured with raised dashes is a third filled with amber-colored liquid behind the salt cellar and stacked plates. A roll of bread and a knife with rest in the folds of the white cloth. Turned knobs of the table legs are visible in the gap between the fringe of the green tablecloth and the bottom edge of the composition. The background is an earthy, pale olive green.