Flower Garlands around a Medallion with the Triumph of Love

For at least 170 years this picture existed as two. By 1685 Louis XIV had ordered it cut apart. The centre, with Domenichino's cupids and the small ring of flowers right around them, went one way. The large outer garland by the Flemish flower painter Daniel Seghers stayed in the king's picture store, and by about 1824 an inventory listed it simply as an anonymous Flemish work. The parts were only put back together in 1858. In the middle, a cupid rides a golden chariot drawn by white doves. Around him the flowers form a double wreath on a black ground, with tulips, irises and roses among them. The Louvre calls this double wreath almost unique in Seghers's work, and a secular subject like the Triumph of Love was just as rare for him. It is probably his earliest painting that can be dated.