An Antique Dealer's Gallery

When Giacomo Manilli published his guide to the Borghese villa in 1650, this panel was already in the collection, and he called it a painter's studio. The family inventory of 1693 saw something else. It describes a gallery painted with many little pictures, an astrologer seated at a table with a globe, and a monkey tied to a stool. Later scholars have read the room as a picture dealer's shop or a collector's gallery, and the question is still open. The panel carries Frans Francken's signature. Landscapes, portraits, a still life and religious scenes cover the walls edge to edge, and small statues stand along the cornice. A dog lies on the floorboards, and the monkey on its chain may stand for painting itself, which was long called the ape of nature.