(Leeuwarden, February, 1611 – after 1644)
Still life with a Römer filled with white wine surrounded by wine leaves on a humped basin with knife on an antique pink cover
Oil on panel, parqueted
71 x 55 cm / 28 x 21,7 in
Signed in the middle right on the background: M.B. / de Stomme
An unusual composition by the painter Maerten Boelema, who called himself "de Stomme" because he was deaf.
On one edge of the table lies a soft antique pink cloth, which is lined with gold fringes. On top of it a silver shining, humped basin. On it stands the mighty, almost discoloured Römer with its wide hollow shaft, which is decorated with berry burls. The white wine in the Römer favours the play of light, which Boelema shows with numerous reflections in the glass and also on the silver plate. The content of the glass corresponds to the vine leaves, which the painter –probably only this time– lets entwine around the glass, thus creating a powerful thematic ensemble.
On the silver basin there is also a lemon, which has been peeled and from which two slices have already been cut off, which lie on the left side of the plate. The mother-of-pearl knife, thanks to which the lemon could be peeled for the wine, lies on the right side of the basin.
The pink cloth with its gold fringe, as well as the knife, the Römer and the lemon are familiar elements that we know from other works of Boelema. Thus, all these set pieces appear in a painting of his hand in the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Reims that is also fully signed.
Works of his hand are rare and signed works are hardly to be found.
Literature about the artist:
- A. Wassenbergh, 'Een vroeg stilleven van Maerten Boelema de Stomme', De Vrije Fries 46, 1964, S. 110-204
- P. Bakker, Lexicon van schilders in Friesland (1590-1700), in: Gezicht op Leeuwarden. Schilders in Friesland en de markt voor schilderijen in de Gouden Eeuw, Amsterdam, 2008 (Dissertation Universität zu Amsterdam), S. 177-248; S. 182-183.