Adriaen van der Spelt and Frans van Mieris
Dutch, 1630­1673 & 1635­1681
Trompe-l’Oeil Still Life with a Flower Garland 
and a Curtain
1658
Oil on panel
46.5 x 63.9 cm
Wirt D. Walker Fund, 1949.585

In seventeenth-century Holland, art collectors sometimes kept their paintings behind a curtain that protected them from light and dirt, and showed how prized they were. Imagine the surprise of a viewer who pulled away the real curtain, only to find another curtain that partially hides the flowers in a still life—a trompe-l’oeil, or “fool the eye,” effect. The realistic curtain was painted by van Mieris, and van der Spelt included a lesson in botany and zoology in the still life: the flowers range from buds to wilted blossoms, and insects are seen in both the caterpillar and butterfly stage—a reference to the cycle of life from infancy to old age.