This intricately decorated cabinet exemplifies the highly skilled furniture-making tradition that flourished in 17th-century Antwerp. The architectural structure features a central body with a columned opening, revealing a remarkable spiegelpaleisje (‘mirror palace’, also known in contemporary sources as a prospectiefke or perspective interior) - a hidden chamber with mirrored walls and a checkered floor composed of ebony and ivory tiles that creates the illusion of infinite depth. This theatrical element would have been used to display small precious objects or sculptures, multiplying their appearance through reflections and adding to the cabinet's sense of wonder and spectacle. [1] The arched and painted entrance to the mirror palace is crowned by a decorative tympanum with classical architectural detailing, adding to the classical temple-like appearance of the central section. Surrounding this central body are nine small-scale landscape paintings. The cabinet also includes two hinged side doors as well as an upper compartment - each featuring a landscape painting - creating multiple display and storage spaces. The ebonized wood construction showcases ebony veneer applied to a local wood (probably fruitwood), with architectural design featuring decorative moldings and beaded borders.

In his Dictionnaire universel (published 1690) Antoine Furetière (1619-1688) wrote: "Cabinet. Type of sideboard with several doors and drawers to lock up precious things, or to serve as an ornament in a room or gallery.” [2] These pieces functioned both as private museums (a miniature kunstkammer) and practical storage, demonstrating not only the wealth of their owners but also their refined taste, aesthetics, and erudition. Invented during the great voyages of discovery, cabinets were originally intended to store papers, jewelry, and indispensable items while traveling. They often featured secret drawers (secreeten) and double bottoms for securing valuables. The legs were created later as a more aesthetic alternative to the trestles upon which they were originally placed. Beyond utility, cabinets served as status symbols, proclaiming their owner's wealth as they traveled from province to province. They functioned as decorative objects allowing wealthy patrons to simultaneously display prized possessions and store personal items in numerous drawers.

Despite the economic downturn following the Fall of Antwerp in 1585 and the subsequent blockade of the Scheldt River by the Dutch Republic, Antwerp remained an important center for the arts throughout the 17th century. Artists' studios continued to operate and commissions remained available, and the city remained one of the most important international centers for art production and export. The presence of large numbers of specialized craftsmen including cabinetmakers, sculptors, turners, painters, gilders, mirror makers, locksmiths and many others made possible the production of the typical ‘Antwerp cabinet’. These were highly refined luxury products - each one essentially a Gesamtkunstwerk - whose production was often coordinated by art dealers such as the Forchondt family. These beautifully crafted art cabinets, quintessentially ‘made in Antwerp’, were exported throughout Europe. In addition to ebony veneer, blackened fruitwood (often pearwood stained black) was also used to imitate ebony. Cabinets were enriched with various materials including silverfoil, embroidery, tortoiseshell, ivory, alabaster, marble, enamel, lapis lazuli, and porphyry, along with trompe l'œil paintings, creating theatrical pieces full of surprises as compartments were opened. [3]

Painting the drawers and doors for these highly sought-after cabinets was steady, lucrative business for artists. The present cabinet features in total no less than 13 landscape paintings on panel, depicting pastoral scenes with trees and foliage in warm golden-brown and green tones, figures in village and countryside settings, buildings and architectural elements, water features and distant views, all beneath soft atmospheric skies. These quiet, pastoral landscapes, executed in the tradition of Jan Brueghel the Elder, display characteristic features of Isaac van Oosten's work: simple, open compositions with hilly landscapes, clusters of trees, and an overall sense of gentleness and calm.

Isaac van Oosten (10 December 1613 – December 1661) was born in Antwerp as the son of an art dealer with the same name who had become a master in the Antwerp Guild of Saint Luke in 1617. It is believed he initially painted for his father's shop and therefore did not register with the Guild until later in life. There is no record of where he received his training or with which master(s) he studied. He only became a master of the Saint Luke's Guild in 1652 when he was already 39 years old, after the Guild had insisted he join and pay his dues. [4] He was thus officially active for only about a decade before his death in Antwerp in 1661, leaving no known offspring. Van Oosten was a landscape painter in the tradition of Jan Brueghel the Elder. He was also influenced by contemporary Flemish painters such as Alexander Keirincx, Lucas van Uden, and Jan Wildens. He producted panels for Antwerp cabinets, as well as independent landscape paintings on panel and copper. As was common practice at the time, he frequently collaborated with painters who specialized in particular scenic elements or staffage. Works by Van Oosten can be found in the collections of the Uffizi, the Museo del Prado, the Hermitage Museum, the Musée des Beaux-Arts d'Orléans, the Museum of Fine Arts of Rennes, the Toledo Museum of Art, and other institutions.

END NOTES

[1] For the specific study of mirror palaces in Antwerp cabinets, see Ria Fabri, "Perspectiefjes in het spel: Optische 'Spielereien' in Antwerpse kunstkasten uit de zeventiende eeuw," De Zeventiende Eeuw 15, no. 1 (1999): 127-143.

[2] Antoine Furetière, Dictionnaire universel, contenant généralement tous les mots françois tant vieux que modernes, et les termes de toutes les sciences et des arts, The Hague, Arnout & Reinier Leers, 1690.

[3] For a comprehensive study on Antwerp cabinets and their typology, historical context and art-historical aspects, see Ria Fabri, "De 17de-eeuwse Antwerpse kunstkast. Typologische en historische aspecten," Verhandelingen van de Koninklijke Academie voor Wetenschappen, Letteren en Schone Kunsten van België, Klasse der Schone Kunsten 53, Brussels, AWLSK, 1991; and Ria Fabri, "De 17de-eeuwse Antwerpse kunstkast. Kunsthistorische aspecten," Verhandelingen van de Koninklijke Academie voor Wetenschappen, Letteren en Schone Kunsten van België, Klasse der Schone Kunsten 55, Brussels, AWLSK, 1993.

[4] P. Rombouts en T. Van Lerius, De Liggeren en andere historische archieven der Antwerpsche Sint Lucasgilde, Amsterdam, 1961.