FLEMISH SCHOOL, LAST QUARTER OF THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY | AN ALLEGORICAL STILL LIFE OF ARMOR, WEAPONS, INSTRUMENTS, VANITAS SYMBOLS, AND OTHER ELEMENTS AND FIGURES SET UPON A STONE LEDGE WITH AN OBELISK AND A CITY BEYOND

This impressive allegorical scene teeming with various still-life elements has been rendered with a very fine attention to detail. The composition has roots in the allegorical works popularized earlier in the century by artists such as Jan Brueghel the Elder, and it is known in a few other versions also by anonymous hands [1]. The present work is among the best quality of the known iterations, all of which are comparable in dimensions, inscription, and date. 

We are grateful to Fred Meijer for his assistance in the cataloguing of this lot.

1. Two other examples are recorded in the RKD database. No 206623: oil on canvas, 91.8 by 119.2 cm. No 63406: oil on canvas, 91.8 by 119.2 cm.