Dirck de Bray, 'Flowers in a White Stone Vase', 1671

Dirck de Bray’s glorious bunch of flowers seems to have been brought in straight from the garden and placed unceremoniously into the plain white earthenware pot. The impression is that the artist has, perhaps, picked them and put them there himself, just before taking up a brush. The bouquet is far from the carefully designed informality of the displays of Rachel Ruysch, Jacob van Walscapelle or Jan Davidsz. de Heem. Unlike other Dutch flower painters of the time, De Bray showed flowers that bloom during the same season – in this case, spring. This allowed him to paint the whole bouquet as he saw it, not what he imagined, nor what he took from selected drawings placed together on a preparatory outline.

The ethereal light that infuses the image seems almost to come from the intense white of the alliums, which illuminate the rest of the picture on their own. A breath of blue shimmers over the black background giving an otherworldly feeling to the image. This blue is answered by the blue flowers strewn on the ledge below. Subtle shadows throw into relief the different textures of glowing petals and spiky leaves, sturdy earthenware and veined marble, trailing stems and tiny wings. A drooping bud bursts from its shield of sepals as if leaning down to encourage a shy honeybee to come out of hiding. Touches of blue, green leaves sobered with brown and the deep purple of tall aquilegias temper the breathtaking contrast between scarlet peonies and sparkling alliums. An implied curved line runs down the stem of the topmost aquilegia, skirting the brightest allium, down to the promenading ladybird on the ledge. That tiny dot of red holds the bouquet lightly in check before it can break free and tumble apart.

The painting seems to be from the hand of a master who saw more than just beautiful flowers, or specimen blooms to be appreciated scientifically. It speaks of a love of natural things that comes from more than aesthetic pleasure. De Bray first painted flowers in 1665. Although he entered the Painters’ Guild of St Luke a few years later, soon afterwards he became a lay brother at a monastery in Brabant, where he served until his death.

Perhaps because of his Catholic faith, many of De Bray’s flowers have an association with the Virgin Mary, traditionally linked to the spring. Alliums and peonies both had a place in gardens devoted to the Virgin. The delicate aquilegia was once known as Our Lady’s Slippers, and the morning glory on the marble ledge as Virgin’s Mantle. Even the humble borage beside it symbolises heavenly grace. The honeybee often represented the Virgin, and the dot of red that is the ladybird, and so important in the painting, was named after the Virgin because of a miracle that involved them both.

Perhaps the miracle is that we have this picture. Although de Bray left a few still-life paintings and interiors, so far, only seven flower paintings seem to have survived, all of them of great quality. They all show flowers from the same season and all have the same sense of joy.(1)

(1) Virgin gardens from: University of DaytonHerbs and Flowers of the Virgin Mary. Bonnie Roberson and John Stokes Jr