Although Juan van der Hamen led Spanish still life painting to a high degree of sophistication, from the standpoint of his compositional solutions and his repertoire of depicted objects, he also made extraordinarily straightforward works throughout his short career. The latter demonstrate his capacity to meticulously and believably depict forms and textures. In fact, when he died, he was working on a series of twelve small fruit paintings that were probably quite similar to the present one, which coincides with one of the works listed in the collection of the King's silversmith, Andrés de Villarroel, in 1655. This painter from Madrid was not the only Spanish still-life painter to alternate complex and straightforward works, as can be seen in Juan de Arellano's Plate of Peaches and Pears (Prado Museum, P7610).