Thyssen-Bornemisza Museo Nacional Search Ir al contenido principal

Navegación superior (EN)

About Us Support Become Friend Shop Tickets
Español
Visit Collection Exhibitions Activities Education Search
  • Visit
  • Collection
  • Exhibitions
  • Activities
  • Education

Thyssen - Navegación superior (EN)

About Us Support Become Friend Shop Tickets
Español
©
Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid
Jan Fyt

Vase of Flowers and Two Bunches of Asparagus

ca. 1650
Oil on canvas.
63.7 x 75.4 cm
Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid
Inv. no.
150
(
1930.25
)
Not on display
  • Level 2 Permanent Collection
  • Level 1 Permanent Collection
  • Level 0 Carmen Thyssen Collection and Temporary exhibition rooms
  • Level -1 Temporary exhibition rooms, Conference room and EducaThyssen workshop
Level 2
Permanent Collection
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 14 13 15 16 17 18 22 19 20 21 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 Recommended start of the visitClassical rooms
1 14th Century. Early Italian Painting 2 15th Century. German and Spanish Painting 3 15th Century. Early Netherlandish Painting 4 15th Century. Italian Painting 5 15th and 16th Centuries. Renaissance Portraiture 6 16th Century. Villahermosa Gallery 7 16th Century. Italian Painting 8 15th and 16th Centuries. German Painting 9 15th and 16th Centuries. German Painting 10 16th Century. Netherlandish Painting 11 Tiziano, Tintoretto, Bassano and  El Greco 12 17th Century. Caravaggio and Baroque Painting 13 17th Century. Italian, French and Spanish Painting 14 17th Century. Italian, French and Spanish Painting 15 17th Century. Italian, French and Spanish Painting 16 18th Century. Italian Painting 17 18th Century. Italian Painting 18 18th Century. Italian Painting 19 Classical rooms 20 Classical rooms 21 Classical rooms 22 18th Century. Italian Painting 23 17th Century. Dutch Painting. Landscape 24 18th Century. French and English Painting 25 17th Century. Dutch Painting. Scenes of Daily Life and Interiors 26 17th Century. Dutch Painting. Landscape 27 17th Century. Dutch Painting. Portrait 28 17th Century. Dutch Painting. Landscape 29 19th Century. European Painting. Goya and Romanticism  
Level 1
Permanent Collection
30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 Postpop rooms Rodin room
30 18th and 19th Centuries. Transatlantic Relations 31 19th Century. American Landscape and Environmental Awareness 32 19th Century. American Landscape and Urban Life 33 Recovering the ligth. Restoration of Waterloo Bridge, by André Derain 34 20th Century. Expressionist Landscapes 35 20th Century. Expressionist Portraits 36 20th Century. The Language of the Body 37 20th Century. Urban unrest 38 20th Century. Flowers 39 20th Century. Pioneers of abstraction 40 20th Century. Popular flavor 41 20th Century. The Cubist Tradition I 42 20th Century. The Cubist Tradition II 43 20th Century. Abstract Utopias 44 20th Century. Dada and Surrealism 45 20th Century. Interwar Realisms 46 20th Century. American Abstraction I 48 20th Century. Post-ward American Art 49 20th Century. Post-ward European Figurative Art 50 20th Century. Informalisms 51 20th Century. Homo Ludens 52 20th Century. Pop Art 53 Postpop rooms 54 Postpop rooms 55 Postpop rooms 56 Postpop rooms Rodin Exhibition room
Level 0
Carmen Thyssen Collection and Temporary exhibition rooms
A B C D E F G H I J Hall Temporary exhibition rooms Access to Permanent Collection Entrance Access to Carmen Thyssen Collection Paseo del Prado Garden
A 17th and 18th Centuries. Old Masters B 19th Century. North American Landscape C 19th Century. French Naturalist Landscape D 19th Century. Impressionism E 19th Century. Monet and North American Impressionism F 19th Century. Gauguin and Postimpressionism G 19th and 20th Centuries. Neo Impressionism and its Wake H 20th Century. Early Avant-gardes I 20th Century. Between the Wars Painting. Cubism, Abstraction and Surrealism J 20th Century. North American Painting and Others • HALL
Level -1
Temporary exhibition rooms, Conference room and EducaThyssen workshop
Temporary exhibition rooms Conference room EducaThyssen Workshop

Jan Fyt first trained with the painter Hans van der Berch then continued his studies with the animal and still life painter Frans Snyders in whose studio he remained until around 1631. Like many other artists, he furthered his studies in Paris, between 1633 and 1634, and in Italy, working in Venice and Rome and visiting Naples and Florence, as documentary sources record. Fyt returned to Flanders in 1641 for family reasons. Like his master Snyders, Fyt specialized in still life painting. His compositions with dead and live game, arranged with other objects, fruit and vegetables, are among the finest works in his extensive oeuvre. Towards the end of his career he began to paint still lifes with fruit and vases of flowers, of which the present canvas is an example. Fyt developed a distinctive style in which his brushstroke became increasingly free and loose, which he skilfully used to convey the different textures of the elements within his compositions, particularly the fur of hares, rabbits and dogs and the plumage of birds.

The present canvas dates from his mature phase, around 1650, and combines flowers and vegetables. Using a palette of predominantly greens and grey-browns for the background and the ledge, Fyt depicts a plain glass vase filled with the woody stems of white hydrangeas, as well as roses and tulips. Propped against the vase are two bunches of asparagus. The range of colours is relatively narrow but Fyt deploys a wide range of tones and chromatic gradations in this extremely natural composition. They include the pure, brilliant whites used to depict the tiny petals of the hydrangeas and the stalks and tips of some of the asparagus, as well as the greens of the asparagus and the three types of leaves in the vase. These shades contrast with the warm tones of velvety petals of the roses and the deep crimson of the tulips.

Asparagus, which was a luxury foodstuff, is not frequently depicted in still life painting. However, we find other examples in the work of Fyt’s teacher Synders, for example, The Fruit and Vegetable Stall in the Alte Pinakothek, Munich, in which they are to be seen in a basket between different types of beans and a cauliflower. They are also depicted in a painting by Adriaen van Nieuladt entitled A Kitchen in the Herzog-Anton-Ulrich Museum in Brunswick in which they are placed on top of a pile of foodstuffs on a dish. Fyt depicted asparagus in a number of other works such as the painting now in The Hermitage, St. Petersburg.

Gaskell referred to a composition that is notably comparable to the present one and which was in a private collection in Antwerp. The asparagus is replaced by grapes but the remainder of the composition is similar, particularly the vase and the types of roses and hydrangeas, a fact that suggests that Fyt may have used the same preparatory sketch for both works.

Mar Borobia

17th Century17th Century - Flemish paintingPaintingOilcanvas
Listen
Download image Print page

Products and publications

German Expressionism from the Baron Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection exhibition catalogue (Spanish with English booklet)

German Expressionism from the Baron Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection exhibition catalogue (Spanish with English booklet)

30.00 € 28.51 €

Max Beckmann, figuras del exílio. Exhibition catalogue. Paperback Spanish language edition.

Max Beckmann, figuras del exílio. Exhibition catalogue. Paperback Spanish language edition.

9.50 €

Poster Richard Estes. Telephone Booths, 1967

Poster Richard Estes. Telephone Booths, 1967

12.50 €

Poster Richard Estes: People's Flower

Poster Richard Estes: People's Flower

12.50 €

Visit online shop

More from the collection

David Teniers II
David Teniers II
The Village Fête
ca. 1650
Michiel Sweerts
Michiel Sweerts
Soldiers playing Dice
ca. 1656 - 1658
Michiel Sweerts
Michiel Sweerts
Boy in a Turban holding a Nosegay
ca. 1658 - 1661
David Teniers II and Jan van  Kessel I
David Teniers II and Jan van Kessel I
The Submission of the Sicilian Rebels to Antonio Moncada in 1411
1663
  • Private and/or didactic use
  • Commercial use
Private and/or didactic use
Vase of Flowers and Two Bunches of Asparagus. Jarrón con flores y dos manojos de espárragos, c. 1650
Vase of Flowers and Two Bunches of Asparagus
Jan Fyt

©

Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid

Terms of Use

The exploitation rights of the images correspond to the Fundación Coleccion Thyssen-Bornemisza, F.S.P. The Fundación authorizes the downloading of high-resolution images from its website for private use, use for educational and research purposes, and other non-commercial uses.

Use for educational and research purposes is understood as the non-commercial or advertising use of images in presentations, conferences, school or university work, in classes at regulated education institutions, as well as in academic publications, with a circulation of less than 1,000 copies, provided that it is non-profit.

Non-commercial use is understood as the use of the images in a context where no profit, monetary or commercial, is generated, directly or indirectly.

Any use other than those indicated above will require the prior written authorization of the Fundación Any request for educational and research use or for non-commercial use (including academic publications), should be directed by email to the Museum Photo Library through the email address archivo.fotografico@museothyssen.org. This department manages the worldwide distribution of the images of the works of the Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza and the management of their reproduction rights for those uses.

The user agrees to use the image of the website solely and exclusively for the purposes described above and in accordance with the following terms of use:

Terms of use

  • If the image is used for reproduction, the work must be reproduced in its entirety. The image may not be manipulated, deformed, modified, or altered in any way. In particular, no superposition (of images or texts) on the reproduction is allowed.
  • The reproduction of a detail or part of the work may only be made with the prior written authorization of the Fundación. In this case, the credit line must include the following mention: “detail”.
  • Any total or partial reproduction of the images authorized by the Fundación must be accompanied by the following mention: Author's name. Title, Date © Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid.
  • The user will send to the Museum Photo Library of the Fundación one (1) free copy of the edition, publication or reproduction to the following address: Archivo Fotográfico, Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza, Paseo del Prado, 8 28014 Madrid, Spain.
Download image
Commercial use
Vase of Flowers and Two Bunches of Asparagus. Jarrón con flores y dos manojos de espárragos, c. 1650
Vase of Flowers and Two Bunches of Asparagus
Jan Fyt

©

Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid

Terms of Use

The Photographic Archive of the Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza offers sale and rental service of photographic material of all the works on its Permanent Collection.

To request images or permits for commercial use in academic or research publications, that is, catalogues of other institutions, monographs and other specialized publications, you should contact the Museum's Commercial Archive by email at the e-mail @email.

To request images or permits for other commercial or advertising uses (general publications, merchandising, exhibitions, audio-visual works, web pages, etc.), you should contact the Museum's Commercial Archive by email at the e-mail @email.

The Photo Library and the Museum's Commercial Archive manage the worldwide distribution of images of the Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza works, as well as their reproduction rights. The applicable rates are calculated based on the nature and proposed use of the images, as well as the availability of the requested image.

Requests for scans or new photographs will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. Once approved, an additional fee will apply. Re-photographing a work will require a minimum of six weeks to complete.

However, photographed works are protected by copyright. Therefore, regardless of the terms of use of the photographs set out below by the Foundation, it will be necessary to obtain a license from the author or copyright holder known to the Fundacion in order to reproduce or exploit the work.

Download image
Thyssen-Bornemisza Museo Nacional

Navegación secundaria (EN)

  • #Thyssenmultimedia
  • Press
  • Corporate events
  • Tourism
  • Join our team
  • Newsletter
Instagram
Facebook
X
Youtube
TikTok
iVoox
LinkedIn

The Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza would like to thanks for the collaboration of:

Fundación Mutua Madrileña Master Card Comunidad de Madrid
©2025 Thyssen-Bornemisza National Museum

Menú al pie (EN)

  • Legal terms and use of images
  • Public tenders
  • Transparency site
  • Accessibility and quality
  • Sustainability & 2030 Agenda
  • Contact
Ministry of Culture España es cultura | Spain is culture. The website promoting Spanish culture Paisaje de la Luz | Paseo del Prado y Buen Retiro. Paisaje de las Artes y las Ciencias
Certificación de Conformidad con el Esquema Nacional de Seguridad. Categoría Media. RD 311/2022