Still Life with Fruit, Vegetables and Musical Instruments

The pendant decorative still lifes, dated into 1690s, initially from Thun collection in Děčín are set in a landscape, which in the vista is framed by the darkened sky that endows the paintings with a dramatic moment. Still Life with Fruit, Vegetables and Fountain (DO 4981) depicts the selected fruit and vegetables in the fountain, on its base, and also at the foot of the collapsed column. Still Life with Fruit, Vegetables and Musical Instruments (DO 4980) is an arrangement which is also a musical still life. The stone landing in the upper part of the composition shows, on a wrinkled carpet and abundantly frilled drapery, a lute, a flute and a violin. Pfeiler responded to the increasing interest in decorative still lifes with luxury objects and focused on capturing the qualities of the various depicted things. In Rome he was influenced in this respect by the painter Christian Berentz, to whose circle Pfeiler belonged.