This "banquet" still life, in which food and serving vessels are disposed on a table, demonstrates one of Willem Heda´s specialties. Displayed in the painting are the remains of a sumptuously laden table. A suggestion remains of the care with which the vessels and utensils were once arranged, but Heda has presented them as if a real meal had been abruptly abandoned. The white linen tablecloth is crumpled, ornate silver vessels overturned, glasses half emptied, plates negligently piled up, the lid of a silver pitcher left open, and slices of bread and oyster shells strewn across the table.
