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6th and Constitution Ave NW
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Upcoming Exhibition:

Little Beasts: Art, Wonder, and the Natural World
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Visit
Open daily from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Admission is always free

6th and Constitution Ave NW
Washington, DC 20565

Only have an hour to spend?

We've got you covered.
Exhibitions & Events
Upcoming Exhibition:

Little Beasts: Art, Wonder, and the Natural World
Opens May 18
Art & Artists
Artle

A refreshed experience for our puzzle game
Today's puzzle

Audio Tour Stop 203

Still Life with Peacock Pie (Spanish), Pieter Claesz

NGA, West Building, M-050, E

Part of West Building Tour: Featured Selections (한국인)

Still Life with Peacock Pie (Korean)

On a tabletop spread with an ivory-white cloth, plates, and white porcelain bowls containing sweets, fruit, olives, and a cooked fowl are arranged around the largest platter, which holds the head, wings, and tail of a peacock stuck into a tall, baked pie, in this horizontal still life painting. The front, left corner of the table is near the lower left corner of the painting, so the tabletop extends off the right side of the composition. The white tablecloth lies over a second cloth underneath, which is only visible along the right edge. The cloth underneath has a leafy, geometric pattern in burgundy red against a lighter, rose-red background. The peacock pie is set near the back of the table, to our right, so it fills the upper right quadrant of the composition. The bird holds a pink rose in its beak. In front of it, near the lower right corner of the painting, a white porcelain bowl painted with teal-green floral and geometric designs holds about ten pieces of pale yellow and blush-red fruit. A pewter plate next to it, to our left, holds dried fruit and baked, stick-like sweets, some covered with white sugar. A pile of salt sits atop a gold, square vessel between the sweets and the peacock pie. Another blue-patterned, white porcelain bowl filled with green olives sits near the back of the table next to a lidded, pewter pitcher with a long spout. Other pewter plates hold a baked fowl, like a small chicken, and, closest to us, a partially cut lemon with its peel curling off the plate. Nuts, more fruit, an ivory-handled knife, bread rolls, and flat biscuits sit on the white cloth among the plates. One glass with a wide stem covered in nubs and a flaring bowl sits near the back, left corner of the table, filled with a pale yellow liquid. An empty glass lies with the upper rim on another pewter plate, to our left. Also on the plate is a bunched up white napkin and a leather case for the knife. The background behind the still life is brown. — Pieter Claesz, Still Life with Peacock Pie, 1627, oil on panel, The Lee and Juliet Folger Fund , 2013.141.1

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