Giant radish by http://www.wikidata.org/.well-known/genid/1aad3d5d445d9d43a35ee1a2a2dcea0e

Giant Radish is an anonymous oil painting from 1626. A single radish fills the canvas, lit against total darkness, with a handwritten scroll beside it recording the weight at nearly seventeen pounds. No one knows who painted it or why.

The painter used chiaroscuro, the dramatic contrast of light against dark, to give the radish a sculptural presence. Every marking on its skin is rendered with care. A delicate white flower blooms from the crown, and fine hair-like roots trail below.

The scroll is written in archaic Dutch, dated Anno 1626. The Dutch Golden Age produced countless still-lifes and botanical studies, but few as singular as this: a radish, a scroll, and nothing else. The painter left no signature.

Four centuries later, the painting endures as a quiet puzzle. Why did this radish deserve such attention? Like the painter's name, the answer has been lost.