Lot 1051 Dα

In this richly decorated flower painting, Jan van Kessel draws on an iconography firmly established in Flemish painting. Van Kessel was a pupil of the Antwerp artist Daniel Seghers, from whom he appears to have been influenced in the present painting, but also by the work of Jan Davidsz. de Heem, one of Flanders' leading still life painters. The garland of flowers with a stone cartouche in the centre of the composition became a trademark of Daniel Seghers' painting. This Flemish pictorial invention can be traced back to the beginning of the seventeenth century and the work of Jan Brueghel the Elder.
In the centre of the painting, dated 1666, is a stone cartouche with an elegant young couple in the centre. The two can be attributed to the figure painter Hieronymus Jannsen. They contrast with the lifeless material of the stone cartouche, as do the vividly rendered flowers and crawling insects on the garland, and Jan van Kessel's masterful treatment of the pictorial details makes his play with the different levels of reality a convincing success.