Larder with Game, Fruit, Vegetables and a Servant 1616 - 1617

Frans Snijders created this still life painting, "Larder with Game, Fruit, Vegetables and a Servant," with oil on canvas. Snijders was working in Flanders, now part of Belgium, during the early 17th century. The composition celebrates the abundant variety of food that was becoming available to the wealthy merchant classes of the region at the time. It’s impossible to ignore that this abundance contrasts sharply with the lives of the working classes. Notice how the servant is almost lost amongst the display of produce. The painting implicitly comments on the social structures of its own time, and how new class structures were emerging. To fully understand this artwork, we need to look at the history of Dutch trade and the rise of the merchant class, as well as the role of domestic service in the 17th century. Only then can we appreciate the full social and institutional context in which this painting was created and consumed.