A craftsman of extraordinary skill, van Aelst painted the sorts of objects customary among his fellow still-life producers: flowers in ornate, precious vases; ripe fruit; dead game animals; and hunting gear.
Common decorative motifs found on it include cherubs, ornate scrollwork, cartouches (ornamental frames), fruit-and-flower swags, and grotesque masks.
Luckily, it's often far less busy mid to late afternoon, and their cakes are wonders to behold, covered in unbelievably ornate decorations of flowers and fruits and spun sugar.
Vendors also sell fresh bread and homemade sweets, and men in ornate red costumes sell tea and fruit drinks out of huge metal flasks hanging from their neck.
It was built with at least five types of Cambodian hardwood, and the interior woodwork was decorated with ornate carvings of phoenixes, plum blossoms and fruit — symbols of success, abundance and wealth.
He tells us about the linguistic acrobatics required to circumvent the censors; the complexities of censorship in Iran, where there is a literary tradition of using ornate metaphors and similes for bodily and sexual attributes (including lots of fruit, flower and food imagery); and the government's reported use of Western computer software to identify literary works published under pseudonyms.
Shisha is a water-pipe in which fruit-scented tobacco is burnt using coal, passed through an ornate water vessel and inhaled through a hose.
Starbucks describes the drink as "a Hazelnut Crème Frappuccino... with dried fruit added and spiced with cinnamon, topped with whipped cream and an ornate topping of caramel dots and a sprinkle of matcha".
The ornate glass and metal water pipes are used for smoking an aromatic blend of tobacco, molasses and fruit known as shisha.
