Roelant Saverij painted at least twenty flower pieces, two of which are part of the Centraal Museum’s collection. One is a small painting on copper from 1603 that is reckoned among the earliest flower pieces of the northern Netherlands. The second is this majestic flower piece that Saverij painted in Utrecht in 1624. It is the largest painting he ever made.

The Large Flower Still Life with Crown Imperial is not only impressive for its size but also for the huge variety of flowers depicted. The bouquet consists of 63 different flowers. The crown imperial at the top is surrounded by irises, tulips, roses, anemones, larkspur, forget-me-nots, cornflowers, poppies, grape hyacinths and many more. Aside from the expensive cultivated flowers, the bouquet also contains many wild flowers. This preference for wild varieties and for plants that only have a decorative leaf shape such as the ferns is typical for Saverij. Because all the flowers are different and it moreover contains 44 species of animals, it has also been referred to as the painted collection: as a two-dimensional overview of an extremely valuable seventeenth century collection.

The crown imperial held a particular significance for Roelant Saverij. It had already been described as the Corona Imperialis by European writers at the imperial courts of Vienna and Prague at the end of the sixteenth century. The flower was apparently associated with Emperor Rudolf II (1552-1612), in whose service Saverij had worked. Clearly, the painter was eager to let everyone know that he had worked for such an illustrious client, seeing the name he gave to his huge house at Boterstraat in Utrecht: ‘het Keijserswapen’ (‘the Emperor’s Coat of Arms’). The house included a large botanical garden. Until around 1550, gardens in Europe were only planted with indigenous species. The increasing availability of exotic species such as the tulip, but also the iris, the crown imperial and for instance the rose, transformed the appearance of these gardens. Saverij must also have bought many of these costly imported plants, for when the flowers and plants from his garden were sold along with his house in 1638, they fetched the huge sum of 400 guilders.