Two years ago Kunsthaus Zürich presented the first monographic exhibition of the work of Pieter Claesz and the early days of still-life painting. Nicolaes Berchem was the son of Pieter Claesz, and became as skilful an artist as his father. But his temper led him into a very different pictural world, in terms of both form and content. Instead of devoting his attention to the secret geometry of a few, judiciously grouped wine glasses, silver goblets, tin plates and their infinitely fascinating reflections, Berchem – in the muted atmosphere of seventeenth-century Holland – imagined an ideal landscape he had never seen with his own eyes. How was it that this brought him such success?