This 1623 painting depicts a basket filled with freshly cut flowers sitting on a stone ledge. Irises, roses, variegated tulips, and a single carnation define the gentle horizontal movement of the arrangement. The eye is drawn from left to right across the composition, from the outermost petal of the striped carnation to the red variegated tulip blossom at the upper right and its red and yellow counterpart beginning to wilt beneath. Van der Ast placed fresh pink and white roses in a triad at the center of the composition beneath a large white and red tulip and the bent head of a fritillary. Two blue irises dominate the left-hand side of the arrangement while a third lies on the stone ledge as if waiting to take its place in the grouping. You can imagine that van der Ast is capturing what happens with ephemeral arrangements when no one is around. A caterpillar inches its way up the stem of the large yellow iris as a dragonfly lands on its uppermost petal. A cricket begins to explore the lilting white petals of the blossom on the ledge at the right, while a spider and a fly begin their work on the white rose at the center of the arrangement.
