A Jan Davidsz de Heem still life with ham, lobster and fruit, circa 1653
The table is set for dinner. Small cooked crabs and shrimp are laid out on the thick wooden tabletop next to succulent figs, grapes, pears and types of produce you can’t even name. There’s a citrus with a long coiling peel draped around it, and an entire roast of some animal’s leg that’s been cut down the middle — so you can see the thick layer of fat running around the edge. Just for good measure, a red lobster and ornate goblet of wine stand on a pedestal above it.
If this meal were laid out in 2016, you’d get out your phone and Instagram a perfectly filtered photo before digging in, #…