Trompe-l'Oeil Still Life with a Flower Garland and a Curtain
Adriaen van der Spelt, 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.
| Artist | Adriaen van der Spelt (Dutch, 1630–1673) Frans van Mieris (Dutch, 1635–1681) |
|---|---|
| Medium | Oil on panel |
| Size | 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 |
| Type | Painting |
| Museum | Art Institute of Chicago · museum page |
| Rights | Public domain (CC0): free to download, print and hang. |
The original is 25 × 18 in. Will it fit your wall? →
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Made in the USA
Made in the USA
Made in the USA
Made in the USA
Image, title, dates, medium and the note are the Art Institute of Chicago's own records, released under CC0; nothing on this page is written by us beyond the links.