Aelbert Jansz. van der Schoor

For a century or so this painter was called Abraham. Old catalogues have him that way and some museum labels still do, including in Bucharest. Then his signature turned up in full on a will of 1648, and the first name came out as Aelbert. He signed himself Aelbert Jansz. van der Schoor, and he worked in Utrecht.

Almost everything else known about him is dates written on pictures. He is documented from the early 1640s to 1672, and neither his birth year nor his death year was ever recorded. He began with portraits and with figure pieces in the Caravaggesque manner Utrecht specialised in, strong light on musicians and drinkers, which is where a musical company like the Bucharest canvas belongs. From the late 1650s he turned increasingly to fish stalls and to vanitas still lifes.

The best known of those, in Amsterdam, puts six skulls on a table, each turned to a different angle, with bones and roses pushed out over the front edge as though about to drop into the room. Most vanitas painters of the period made do with one skull.