as an artistic privilege; to show that the portrait is post mortem; or as an imitation of works of previous painters. Grasshoppers Grasshoppers are occasionally depicted in artworks, such as the Dutch Golden Age painter Balthasar van der Ast's still life oil painting Flowers in a Vase with Shells and Insects, c. 1630, though the insect may be a bush-cricket. Another grasshopper is found in Rachel Ruysch's still life Flowers in a Vase, c. 1685. The seemingly static scene is animated by a "grasshopper on the table that looks about ready to spring", according to the gallery curator Betsy Wieseman, with other invertebrates including a spider, an ant, and two caterpillars. References Entomology Insects in culture