A savant in his cabine, 17th century.

A savant in his cabinet, surrounded by chemical and other apparatus, examining a flask. Oil painting by Mattheus van Helmont, 167-. All around the room is scattered a vast quantity of chemical and pharmaceutical apparatus: earthenware vessels, glass vessels, books, pestles and mortars, herbs in bags or hanging in bunches from the ceiling; also naturalia such as a stuffed fish, the skull of a stag, bladders of animals. On the table to right, a statuette of Laocoön (without his sons); on side of furnace, left, a framed painting of two fools wearing foolscaps.

MVH. Bears traces of signature, lower right: M V H.