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

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.