Trompe-l'Oeil Still Life with a Flower Garland and a Curtain

1658

Van der Spelt’s splendid garland displays about 20 floral varieties—including a tulip, a 16th-century import from Persia that is now an icon of Dutch culture. The deceptively realistic blue curtain, painted by Frans van Mieris, refers to the historical strategy for protecting paintings but also to the tale of Parhassius, a skilled Greek artist who fooled a rival into attempting to pull back a curtain painted onto one of his pictures.

Public domain · CC0
Free to download and reuse. Image courtesy of Art Institute of Chicago.

Artist

Adriaen van der Spelt (Dutch, 1630–1673) Frans van Mieris (Dutch, 1635–1681)

Date

1658

Medium

Oil on panel

Dimensions

46.5 × 63.9 cm (18 1/4 × 25 1/8 in.); Framed: 69.2 × 86.7 × 8.3 cm (27 1/4 × 34 1/8 × 3 1/4 in.)

Origin

Netherlands

Collection

Art Institute of Chicago

Credit

Wirt D. Walker Fund