Miniature collector's cabinet

Bernard Salomon · 1600-02-07T00:00:00Z

Trophies of arms and musical instruments decorate the drawer fronts, while the central door panel shows Orpheus playing before Pluto and Proserpine to regain Eurydice from the Underworld. The composition is based on a 1559 woodcut by Bernard Salomon (ca. 1508–1561). The fall front has complex geometrical forms (polyhedra) rendered in perspective that resemble late sixteenth-century designs by Wenzel Jamnitzer and Lorenz Stoer. The coat of arms of Albrecht VII Archduke of Austria (1559–1621), who ruled the Spanish Netherlands with his wife, Isabella of Spain, appears to have been added after the cabinet was completed.