Jacob Melchior Herck (active 1691-1735) Flowers in a sculpted vase with pomegranates and a watermelon by a stone ledge, oil on canvas, 103 x 136 cm, framed ÜBERLANGTEXT Provenance: Private collection, Germany since the 1920s We are grateful to Fred Meijer for confirming the attribution on the basis of photographs. The Baroque setting of two shadowed urns in the background beneath a sunset, imbues the present work with dramatic light and recessional effects. This allows van Herck to masterfully articulate the forms and textures of the exotic pomegranates and watermelons in the foreground, their shiny flesh mirroring the splendid colour of the blooms above them. Tulips, Irises, carnations and forget-me-nots complete the compositional variety and sense of symbolic splendour. Fred Meijer compares the present work to another equally ebullient, floral still life, with a diverse collection of flowers brimming over the carved edges of a similarly baroque vase. Again employing vivid lighting to model a group of pears on a stone ledge below (sale, Christie’s, Amsterdam, 14 May 2002, lot 57) Van Herck is first recorded in Antwerp in 1691, where he was a pupil of his brother-in-law, Gaspar Pieter Verbruggen the Younger. Later becoming Dean of the Antwerp Guild of Saint Luke, he appears to have been almost exclusively a painter of floral still lifes. He often left his works unsigned, leading them occasionally being attributed to Verbruggen.