Daniel Seghers and Domenichino

The flowers around this medallion are by Daniel Seghers, and the three cupids inside it are by Domenichino. Seghers trained in Antwerp with Jan Brueghel the Elder, the Flemish master of flower painting, and in 1614 joined the Jesuits as a lay brother. He spent his career painting garlands around an empty cartouche and left the centre to another artist. In Antwerp that was often Cornelis Schut, a painter from Rubens's circle, who shared more than 40 pictures with him.

This canvas was made in Rome, where Seghers stayed from 1625 to 1627. Cardinal Ludovico Ludovisi, nephew of Pope Gregory XV, ordered it, and Seghers recorded it in his account book. Domenichino, the Bolognese painter then working in Rome, filled the medallion with a Triumph of Love. The picture entered the collection of Louis XIV before 1672 and is now in the Louvre.

In Antwerp his pictures were rarely sold. The Jesuits presented them to rulers, who sent gifts in return. In 1645 Frederick Henry, the Dutch stadholder, gave him a golden palette with six golden brushes.