Blog post alert: Cabinets of curiosities, gardens, elegant glass instruments, paintings, frames—the post Science, gardens and the Baroque frame has everything! Or anyway scads of related topics and images that reflect my particular fancies. For a hi-rez version of this painting, click here.
NB: I knew I had seen the little portrait in the lower-left corner. Sure enough, it's Simon Bening's self-portrait, two versions of which are reproduced in Christopher de Hamel's study of collectors, The Posthumous Papers of the Manuscripts Club. Don't you love it when serendipity leads to connections?
For more about Frans Francken the Younger, click here.