Trompe l'Oeil Still Life

Van Hoogstraten specialized in the quodlibet (Latin for “whatever you please”), a seemingly random assortment of objects that typically contains verbal and visual witticisms about art, artists, patrons, and politics. This conceit required marvelous fidelity to the textures and scale of the items depicted; even so, the frame proclaims the entirety to be a painting. Therein lies the ruse, for the frame itself is illusory. Having outwitted the Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand III with one of his visual deceptions, Van Hoogstraten received the imperial gold medallion and chain, proudly displayed here to symbolize his elevation from artisan to fine artist. The adjacent note from an admirer boasts of this feat and compares him to Zeuxis, the ancient Greek painter skilled at painted illusion.