Frans Francken the Younger – Curiosities

Bridge Project 3 is about a collection of our curiosities that will be displayed in a cabinet. Therefore, I wanted to find an artist whose work is primarily about showing or painting a collection of things and Frans Franken the Younger is known for that.

Artist’s biographic information

Frans Francken the Younger is a French artist than focused on painting panels of furniture, cabinets-like pictures, and mythological stories. His work is from the Baroque period. His works are mostly from his perspective and his imagination.

Artist Statement 

The best known member of a family of Flemish painters, Frans Francken II was extremely popular in his lifetime. He probably served an apprenticeship in his father’s studio and trained with his uncle in Paris. In 1605 he became a master in the Antwerp Guild of Saint Luke. Francken created altarpieces and painted furniture panels, but he was most renowned for his small, finely crafted cabinet pictures of historical, mythological, or allegorical themes. Francken introduced new subject matter to Flemish art, often with a moralizing message. His luxurious imaginary art galleries influenced Jan Brueghel the Elder and Peter Paul Rubens, and his “monkeys’ kitchens,” allegorical scenes of monkeys enacting human vices, remained popular into the next generation of Flemish painters. 

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