This painting’s realistic appearance is generated with delicate chiaroscuro effects that bring out different parts of the painting, and enhanced by the outdoor effect created by the landscape in the background. The result is a jovial image in which the elements seem to be arranged by chance. That intention is betrayed, however, by the desire for order revealed by an almost terraced arrangement generated in this outdoor setting by a series of small surfaces that bear the fruit and objects. Antilles cherries were quite a common fruit in the 18th century and they appear in other still lifes by Meléndez. Hazelnuts, however, do not appear in any other known painting by that artist.

Here, they are painted with spontaneous brushstrokes that give them the appearance of having been recently picked. Their leafy outer skin curls and swells with natural vitality. The sense of reality conveyed by the apparently casual arrangement of the fruit on the ground—as if it had just fallen from the trees—is contradicted by the blackberries on the plate, which are clearly presented to the viewer as if waiting to be eaten at a repast al fresco. The fruit appears in the immediate foreground, where it is daringly juxtaposed with the view of the landscape in the distance. The Museo del Prado has four other canvases of this type (P922, P923, P939 and P940), which are actually two pairs with opposing compositions. The present work probably had a companion as well, in which the motives would have been presented from right to left (Text from Luna, J. J. : El bodegón español en el Prado. De Van der Hamen a Goya, Museo Nacional del Prado, 2008, p. 124).