Three Dishes of Sweetmeats and Chestnuts with Three Glasses on a Table 

Osias Beert painted this still life featuring food around the turn of the 17th century, a period marked by rising merchant power and the flourishing of global trade in Antwerp. Still life paintings were popular among the burgeoning middle class, mirroring a society increasingly focused on material wealth. In Beert’s painting, the food is meticulously arranged, reflecting a sense of order and control that spoke to the values of the time. Yet, the abundance of sugary treats also hints at a darker side. Sugar, like other spices, was largely produced by enslaved people in the colonies. We might ask, what are the ethics of partaking in such sweet pleasures when they come at such bitter costs? Here, Beert refrains from moralizing, instead, he simply presents. Perhaps the painting functions as a status symbol, or perhaps it reflects a more complex awareness of the intertwined nature of pleasure, trade, and exploitation. It offers us a taste, both literal and figurative, of a pivotal era.