Balthasar van der Ast
Balthasar van der Ast (1593/94 – 7 March 1657) was a Dutch Golden Age painter who specialized in still lifes of flowers and fruit, as well as painting a number of remarkable shell still lifes; he is considered to be a pioneer in the genre of shell painting. His still lifes often contain insects and lizards. He was born in Middelburg and died in Delft. His lifetime of works was once summarized by an Amsterdam doctor who said, "In flowers, shells and lizards, beautiful". Biography Balthasar van der Ast was born in Middelburg in the Southern Dutch province of Zeeland, in the family of a prosperous wool merchant. His birth was not recorded, but years later, on 30 June 1618, his older brother Jacob's legal action indicated that Balthasar was around 25 years old at the time, making his birth date 1593 or 1594. His father, Hans, was a widower, and when he died in 1609, Balthasar moved in with his older sister, Maria, and his brother-in-law, the prominent Dutch painter Ambrosius Bosschaert the Elder (1573–1621), whom Maria married in 1604. Van der Ast was trained by Bosschaert as a still life painter, and his early works clearly show Bosschaert's