A Basket of Flowers

The subject comes very close to a few examples of this motif in paintings by Jan Brueghel the Elder; Ertz (1979) has been unable to find any work certainly by Jan the Elder that represents such a basket of flowers alone. A very similar motif occurs in Jan the Elder's Allegory of Smell (Prado Madrid) of which Jan the Younger made at least one copy. Related baskets of flowers are found in a painting by Jan the Elder of 1617 and especially in one from 1615 both of which include a small basket of flowers to the right (see Liedtke 1984).