Image of the bottom fragment of the 'Allegory of the Eucharist', an artwork with religious meaning by Alexander Coosemans (oil on canvas, Museum of Tesse, Le Mans, France). Alexander Coosemans (1627-1689, Antwerp) was a Flemish Baroque painter, specialized in still lifes, a pupil of Jan Davidsz de Heem, a leading still-life artist in the Netherlands.
The arrangement in the foreground in the bottom fragment of the 'Allegory of the Eucharist' contains many symbolic elements as grapes, lemons, peaches, quince and pomegranates. The grapes are a reference to the Christian communion during which are consumed bread and wine, while the pomegranate and the quince are symbols of plenty, fertility and immortality. In the Christian art, the lemons represent fidelity. They are strongly connected to the Virgin Mary and her stance at the foot of the Cross. A whole peach symbolizes the salvation and truth, as well as fecundity. When cut in half, it represents the human tendency to excess.