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Lot Essay
This previously unpublished work by Flegel has been accepted as autograph by Dr. Hana Seifertová in a certificate dated 5 May 2001; Dr. Seifertová describes the work as 'eine grundsätzliche Bereicherung von Flegels Werk'. Dated by her to Flegel's early career, the chronology of his oeuvre is, however, hard to establish, and the present composition is extremely similar to the Still life with a preparation for a meal in the Kunstmuseum, Basel, and the Still life with a haunch of veal in the Musées royaux des Beaux-Arts de Belgique, both datable to circa 1620.
Several objects within this still life recur in both those works - painted on canvas, with distinct compositional similarities and with very similar measurements to the present picture - including the veal haunch on a plain platter (in the Basel painting and the present work accompanied by a melon, gerkhins, onions and grapes), the roemer of white wine, the bread roll and the crayfish on a pewter plate (accompanied in the other two works by a fish head). The knife, with its chequered grip made from ivory, mother-of-pearl and ebony is of a type - of which a set still survives in the Deutsches Klingenmuseum, Solingen - that Flegel used on more than one occasion, for example in a Still life with Apples (for which see the catalogue of the exhibition, Georg Flegel. Stilleben, K. Wettengl, ed., Frankfurt, Historischen Museums Frankurt am Main, 18 December 1993-13 February 1994, p. 125, no. 39), or the Großes Schauessen in the Alte Pinakothek, Munich.
Wettengl (op. cit., p. 118) suggests that the various objects within the still life could hold associations with which the contemporary viewer may have been familiar. For example, the joint was supposed to arouse the passions, whilst the melon and onions could similarly be understood to be signs of desire. It may be rash, however, to attempt to read too much into such works, as the onion was also seen as representing the tears that may follow on from desire, whilst the melon and the gherkin were both referred to in contemporary texts as having the power to calm down a man's desire.
Several objects within this still life recur in both those works - painted on canvas, with distinct compositional similarities and with very similar measurements to the present picture - including the veal haunch on a plain platter (in the Basel painting and the present work accompanied by a melon, gerkhins, onions and grapes), the roemer of white wine, the bread roll and the crayfish on a pewter plate (accompanied in the other two works by a fish head). The knife, with its chequered grip made from ivory, mother-of-pearl and ebony is of a type - of which a set still survives in the Deutsches Klingenmuseum, Solingen - that Flegel used on more than one occasion, for example in a Still life with Apples (for which see the catalogue of the exhibition, Georg Flegel. Stilleben, K. Wettengl, ed., Frankfurt, Historischen Museums Frankurt am Main, 18 December 1993-13 February 1994, p. 125, no. 39), or the Großes Schauessen in the Alte Pinakothek, Munich.
Wettengl (op. cit., p. 118) suggests that the various objects within the still life could hold associations with which the contemporary viewer may have been familiar. For example, the joint was supposed to arouse the passions, whilst the melon and onions could similarly be understood to be signs of desire. It may be rash, however, to attempt to read too much into such works, as the onion was also seen as representing the tears that may follow on from desire, whilst the melon and the gherkin were both referred to in contemporary texts as having the power to calm down a man's desire.