Wreath of fruits around a statue

Dated to 1622 and held at the Munich Central Collecting Point, this canvas wraps an elaborate fruit garland around a central sculpted or painted statue — a variation on the devotional garland altarpiece format applied to a secular or mythological subject. The statue at the centre is shown in the round or in relief, surrounded by Snyders's characteristic abundance of seasonal fruit. The garland format was enormously popular in Antwerp in the early seventeenth century, with Jan Brueghel the Elder and Daniel Seghers the most celebrated practitioners alongside Snyders. When applied to a secular statue rather than a Madonna, the format becomes a purely decorative conceit celebrating natural abundance as if paying homage to a deity of plenty. The Munich Collecting Point's holdings include numerous works with complex wartime provenance histories. In 1622 Snyders was at the height of his collaborative productivity, working regularly with Rubens and other figure painters; the statue element here may be by another hand.

The fruit garland follows the circular or oval format established by Jan Brueghel, with varieties carefully alternated for chromatic variety and tonal contrast. The central statue is rendered with a stone-like grey tonality suggesting marble or limestone, differentiated from the warm organic tones of the surrounding fruit. The spatial illusion — fruits surrounding a three-dimensional statue — is maintained through consistent lighting from a single direction.