Bobae a collection of everyday treasures

In focus · no. 006

A curtain you keep wanting to pull

Adriaen van der Spelt and Frans van Mieris · Trompe-l'Oeil Still Life with a Flower Garland and a Curtain, 1658

Trompe-l'Oeil Still Life with a Flower Garland and a Curtain
tap and drag to explore · pinch to zoomdrag across the image · scroll to zoom

The flowers are the excuse. The painting is really about the blue curtain drawn halfway across them — a curtain that does not exist, that was never hung, that is made entirely of paint pretending to be silk pretending to hide a painting.

Read the full note