Common glassware in Dutch Still Life painting during the Golden Age, the Roemer.

Never before or even after has Still Life painting being as popular as during the XVII Century Dutch Republic also known as the Golden Age. Still life painting developed different styles, little breakfast (ontbijts); banquets (banketjes); ostentatious (pronks), flower bouquets, vanitas etc. Most of these styles used glassware, sometimes because their texture (as a way for the artist to showcase his skills), sometimes to provide a symbol (broken or tipped over glass) or sometimes just as a recipient as in flower bouquets.
These glasses appear over and over again in the paintings of Piter Claesz, Pieter Claeszoom Heda, Willem Kalf, Jan Davidsz de Heem, Abraham Van Beyeren, Clara Peeters, Johannes Vermeer, Pieter de Hooch, Frans Hals, Rembrard Van Rijn and other masters. However the still life masters made extensive use of them, they painted dinner tables after all.

Pieter Claesz – Getty Museum in Los Angeles, CA	Pieter Claez - LACMA Los Angeles, CA	My own, showing a small roemer

I thought it may be interesting to readers to see in one place all different glasses and their names and places where to see them.
Roemer – The name Roemer (sometimes seen as rummer) comes from the German word “Roman”. This glass can be found in several sizes, sometimes real big sometimes smaller. It appears very often in all still life and genre paintings, normally with white wine or water. See these examples:
The base could be round or sometimes had small spikes similar to a Berkemeyer (see Berkemeyer). The glass stem is hollow and has prunts on the outside. These prunts could have different shapes, sometimes they looked like berries, sometimes like spikes. At the time, people ate with their hands which were greasy; the prunts helped prevent the glass from slipping and were common in other glasses like the berkemeyer or some other goblets.
See these examples from the Getty Museum in LA.

Next post will be about Berkemeyers and other type of glasses
Feel free connect with me in Facebook or Twitter