Flemish, 'Cognoscenti in a Room hung with Pictures', about 1620

Eleven finely dressed men inspect and discuss the contents of a large room packed with works of art, astronomical instruments and antiques. Their distinctive features suggest that these might be portraits of known artists, connoisseurs, collectors and art dealers – the ‘cognoscenti’ of the painting’s title – though none have been securely identified. The paintings, sculpture and prints are also apparently meticulous miniature copies of real examples by sixteenth- and seventeenth-century artists, mostly local to Antwerp, but the collection of them together in an exaggeratedly large room is the fancy of the artist. It’s most likely that the function of this picture was to showcase a range of the best objects in the city as a kind of aspirational ‘wish list’; an ideal collection.

The paintings crowding the room show a wide range of subject matter: religious and secular, landscape, seascape, architectural interiors, genre and history pictures and portraits. They include a church interior by Hendrick van Steenwyck the Younger (on the wall on the left), and a still life with dead game in the style of Frans Snyders (one of the five pictures selected for particular attention on the lower right). Other pictures are in the distinct styles of Joachim Beuckelaer, Joos de Momper, David Teniers the Elder and Frans Francken. The large print on the table is Ceres mocked by Peasants by Goudt after Adam Elsheimer; the open folio beside it shows prints by Albrecht Dürer and Lucas van Leyden. The table on the left displays scientific instruments – a pair of dividers, a compass, an astrolabe and a celestial globe – indicating that these art lovers were also interested in scientific learning. Other luxury items, including a Persian rug, blue and white porcelain, and coins and medals, complete the display.

The picture showcases the pleasure and erudition of art appreciation and collecting, and of scholarly pursuits such as astronomy. But the presence of a monkey – a traditional symbol of the foolishness of man’s endeavours – on the windowsill is perhaps a reminder of the frivolity and ultimate futility of hoarding beautiful and expensive objects.

This type of picture showing collectors and visitors in real or largely imaginary settings was popular in Flanders in the seventeenth century. This example has in the past been attributed to Hans Jordaens the Younger or as a collaboration between Frans Francken II and Hieronymus Francken II, but neither attribution is convincing. It is likely that the picture is the work of two painters: a portrait specialist responsible for the figures, and an adept copyist for the architectural interior and copies of works of art. A clue as to the artist(s) lies in a picture of a similar composition in the collection of Musées Royaux des Beaux-Arts de Belgique, Brussels, which is inscribed with initials that can be interpreted as ‘F/MW’ or ‘WM’ and ‘TF’ (in both, the ‘F’ most likely stands for fecit, which is Latin for ‘he/she made it’).