A Collection

In the Antwerp of 1619, wealthy merchants were filling rooms with wonders, shells from new sea routes, ancient coins, small paintings, exotic specimens, and Frans Francken the Younger more or less invented a way to paint the room itself. Pictures like this one, showing a collector's cabinet crowded with treasures against a plain wall, were a new kind of subject, half inventory and half showcase. You can pick out framed paintings, sculpture, coins and natural curiosities, each rendered small but distinct. These cabinets came before the public museum and did some of the same work, gathering the whole world onto a few shelves. Antwerp's own museum bought this panel in 1903 from a local dealer.