Allegory of the occasion

The figure on the pedestal is Occasion, and the inscription cut into her base states the rule plainly. Refuse to let slip the venture you know to be to your advantage, because opportunity carries a thick head of hair in front and is bald behind. The Francken family workshop in Antwerp turned out small learned pictures like this one by the dozen, painted on copper so the colours would sit hard and bright. The subject is a rare one, and it has been read as a compliment to Shah Abbas of Persia, then ruling from Isfahan and much talked about in the trading cities. The panel reached Perigueux in 1891 with a bequest from a Dordogne chateau, and the museum hedges the authorship between Frans Francken the Younger and his workshop.