Allegory of the Arts and Sciences with a Portrait of Jan Govaertsz. van der Aar...

Isaac Seeman (fl.1739 – London 1751). Oil painting on canvas, Allegory of the Arts and Sciences with a Portrait of Jan Govaertsz. van der Aar, by Isaac Seeman (d.1751), after Cornelis Cornelisz. van Haarlem (Haarlem 1562 - Haarlem 1638), bears CH in monogram and dated (indistinctly) 1607(?). The original painting is at Knole. A group of figures seated round a table. At the left a seated female figure with an olive branch in her left hand and a cornucopia of fruit and corn in her right; a sword and books lie on the ground in front; next to her a man dressed in a yellow coat is seated on the ground playing a lute; two figures are behind, an artist at his easel and a man seated at a table on which there are shells and coins; at the right (front plane) a second undraped female is seated, holding a shell which a man in a feathered hat bends over her shoulder to examine; at the extreme right in the background a figure stands facing the spectator, wearing a hat which is inscribed in Hebrew (???????). The allegory was commissioned by the conchologist Jan Govertsz. van der Aar, whose portrait is included. Lacock, Wiltshire