Bust of Constantijn Huygens Surrounded by a Garland of Flowers (1596–1687)

One word is cut into the base of the bust, CONSTANTER, Latin for steadfast. It was the motto of Constantijn Huygens, an echo of his own first name, and he wrote it in his books too.

As secretary to the princes of Orange, Huygens was the link between the court in The Hague and his friend Daniel Seghers, the Jesuit flower painter in Antwerp. In 1644 Seghers made this for him on a sheet of copper 86 centimetres tall. Orange blossom and ivy climb over the stone. Roses, tulips and carnations crowd the base. The bust, painted in greys to pass for carved stone, is by his Antwerp colleague Jan Cossiers.

It hung in the family house on the Plein, a few steps from the Mauritshuis. After an auction in 1828 it passed into private hands and out of sight, and the museum acquired it in 2018.