This still life´s composition and the elements depicted therein make it an excellent example of that genre´s peculiar evolution in the Madrid court during the central decades of the 17th century.

It bears a curious resemblance to works known to be by Mateo Cerezo (1637-1666) and those attributed to his immediate circle, as well as to works by other artists of his time or immediately before. This work retains Van der Hamen´s stepped placement of elements on monumental stone surfaces to generate a sense of well-coordinated stability. Nonetheless, the distinction that characterizes Van der Hamen´s works is absent. The less orderly placement of the elements and the fact that their materials vary from refined silver and crystal to copper, pewter, bronze and clay, whose utilitarian sense, roughness or coarseness make them more appropriate for a kitchen than a dining room, imbue this work with a popular feeling far removed from the aristocratic sense of Van der Hamen´s paintings. The taste for bleeding meat probably comes from still lifes by Alejandro Loarte (ca. 1590-1626) and Mateo Cerezo.

There is an overall taste for the everyday, an emphasis on domestic settings with motifs extracted from the world of food and the utensils used to prepare it: animals skinned and prepared for stewing, magnificent bunches of asparagus for similar use, and of course, goblets, jugs, a mortar, cauldrons and so on. All of these elements convey aspects of daily life and constitute a valuable document for discovering their functionality in that context. Such a manifest variety of elements allows the artist to display his capacity to differentiate and depict qualities and textures believably with his brush. And this series of peculiarities that make the present still life so outstanding is complemented by a very appropriate and not-at-all pompous use of light, and a breadth of color whose balance reflects a carefully adjusted harmony of shades totally free of stridency. And yet, the relative rigidity and calculated organization of the elements seems somehow archaic, despite the intensely interpretative presentation in the context of this work´s naturalist tradition.