Although as a genre, bodegones, or still life paintings, were considered inferior to religious scenes, history painting and portraiture, they were very popular in Early Modern Spain. Following earlier models, van der Hamen developed a distinctively Spanish type of bodegón characterized by its austerity and the presence of a few everyday foodstuffs arranged with strict geometrical symmetry. This type of composition was subsequently imitated by many other painters, as van der Hamen was the most important and successful still-life painter in Madrid during the first third of the seventeenth century.

Unlike religious paintings, whose principal purpose was to transmit a specific message and affect the viewer in a particular way, bodegones were appreciated first and foremost for their decorative character. Therefore, they were hung in dining rooms and sometimes in less prominent locations such as the spaces above doors. Some still-life paintings, such as this one, also reflect on the social customs of the time: Seventeenth-century Spaniards were fond of receiving visitors at home, and would offer their guests a variety of preserves, pastries, and luxury products such as perfumed waters and chocolate brought from the Indies.

Van der Hamen chose several different objects because of their similar shapes and sizes and their contrasting textures and colors, and he arranged them in a rectangular space that was meant to read as a window sill or a fresquera, a recess in the stone wall of a pantry that was used to keep food cold. The hard geometry of the space is softened by several nicks and imperfections on the ledge, which also add verisimilitude to the composition. A strong light, coming from two different directions, creates a strong contrast between light and shadow. All the elements are arranged architecturally, as is typical of van der Hamen, with a larger and taller element at the center flanked by smaller elements on either side. The two boxes made of thin wood are of a type that would probably have been used to keep hard fruit preserves, such as membrillo (quince paste). The translucent quality of the candied oranges, lemons, plums, figs, and carrots is masterfully rendered, and the sparkling touches on the highlights of the brittle frosting are one of van der Hamen’s trademarks. Among the other foods represented are cakes and buns, pastas (biscuits), and rosquillas (small hard doughnutlike pastries). Treats such as these evidence the Moorish influence on Spanish culture; recipes for these and similar foods appear in medieval Arab cookbooks and can still be found in the north of Africa. Small barrels like the one on the right would have been used to keep arrope, a type of grape jelly, and the round glass jars with paper lids tied with string seem to contain cherries preserved in syrup or liquor. The way in which van der Hamen suggests the various textures, such as the smoothness of the round glass or the brittle quality of the frosting on the fruits, is one of the skills that made his reputation.

Still-life paintings were often done in matching pairs or larger series. The present painting was conceived as one of a pair, its mate now to be found in the collection of the Banco de España. Besides having the same dimensions, the overall scheme of the compositions and the weight of the different volumes in the two canvases are identical, and some elements are designed to rhyme with one another, such as the candied carrots pointing inward in one canvas and outward in the other. This is one of van der Hamen’s most accomplished paintings, and it was an important landmark in the development of the still life in Madrid (Pérez d´Ors, P.: El Greco to Goya. Masterpieces from the Prado Museum, Museo de Arte de Ponce, 2012, p. 130).