Precious silver, Chinese porcelain and Venetian glass placed on a cloth of blue-green silk taffeta: this table is splendidly laid for a small meal consisting of seafood, white wine and fresh strawberries. A scent of lemon mingles with the perfume rising from the rose, reminding us of the boundless beauty of nature.
With its three stages of flowering – buds, full flowers, and withered husks – the rose branch also reminds us of the passage of time and the cyclical rhythm of this world. The gold ring to the right is a quite specific symbol: it is the artist’s signature, a reference to his name, de Ring. He is famed for his still lifes due to his masterful skill at painting the fleeting, changeable phenomena of the real world, such as light reflecting off various surfaces.
