Roux
Roux () is flour and fat cooked together and used to thicken sauces. Roux is typically made from equal parts of flour and fat by weight. The flour is added to the melted fat or oil on the stove top, blended until smooth, and cooked to the desired level of brownness. Butter, vegetable oils, bacon drippings or lard are commonly used fats. Roux is used as a thickening agent for gravy, sauces, soups and stews. It provides the base for a dish, and other ingredients are added after the roux is complete.
Roses, Convolvulus, Poppies, and Other Flowers in an Urn on a Stone Ledge
Ruysch has been recorded as making pendant paintings, with one painting of flowers (called a "bloemstuk") and another of fruit ("fruitstuk"), often on a forest floor. A pendant to this painting is unknown. Various attempts have been made to "read" her paintings in terms of the plants and insects shown in them, but generally they were simply treasured for their beauty and "cleverness". In this painting there are several botanically correct plants, with various insects on them.
This painting was gifted in 1986 by Wilhelmina Holladay. Its provenance doesn't go further back than an advertisement by Alan Jacobs Gallery Ltd., London, in 1984. This is typical for flower still life paintings: once they leave a collection, descriptions of them are too varied to pinpoint them exactly, and Ruysch's production was unusually high for a woman painter, mostly because she remained productive throughout her (very long) life.