Studio of Frans Francken the Younger Antwerp 1581 - 1642

with a rectangular hinged top above two panelled doors, enclosing nine drawers and a central door opening to a mirrored compartment, above one long drawer, the fourteen drawers with panels representing scenes from the Old Testament; top lid: God creating Eva from Adam’s rib; left door: Noah’s arc; left panels: Eve sharing the forbidden fruit; The denial; The Expulsion; Abel and Cain offering; Cain slaying Abel; centre panels: The sacrifice of Isaac; Escape from Sodom and Gomorrah; right door: The tower of Babel; right panels: The three angels; ***; Jacob wrestling with the angel; ***; all oil on panel, the cabinet on a later stand with twist turned legs, joined by an x-shaped stretcher and on bun feet, imperfections

The painted panels are directly based on various paintings by Francken the Younger. The composition of the right door panel, showing Nimrod directing the people towards the tower of Babel, resembles in style and various details a signed painting by Cornelis de Baellieur (Antwerp 1607-1671), in the Koninklijke Musea voor Schone Kunsten, Brussels (see inventory catalogue of the Old Master Paintings, Brussels 1984, p. 13, no. 2780). This painter is recorded to have worked with Francken the Younger and Hans Jordaens III of which a fine example, A Gallery of a Collector, of around 1635, is in the Residenz Galerie, Germany (inv. no. Schönborn-Buchheim 3).