Carstian Luyckx

[2] He studied painting under Philips de Marlier, a still life specialist, in 1642 and under Frans Francken III, a history painter, in 1645.

[3] During his residence in France, Luyckx influenced other vanitas painters, including Simon Renard de St.

The Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister in Dresden holds a painting referred to as Kitchen still life with vase of flowers, dead birds, fish and a cat.

[5] A large portion of his output consists of pronkstillevens, the sumptuous still lifes that were popular in Flanders and the Dutch Republic from the 1640s.

He had followers in France such as Simon Renard de St. André and vanitas works by Luyckx have in the past been attributed to these artists.

This is for instance the case with the composition Vanitas still life with a skull, a violin, a musical score, a pipe and tobacco, an hourglass and a candle on a draped table (Sold at Sotheby's on 6 December 2012 in London, lot 201) previously given to St. André.

[7] His hunting pieces (game still lifes) were influenced by the Flemish specialists in this genre Frans Snyders and especially Jan Fyt.

[3] Some fish still lifes by Luyckx are known, some of which were previously attributed to specialists of this genre such as Abraham van Beijeren or followers of Alexander Adriaenssen.

[10] It was further inspired by the cult of veneration and devotion to Mary prevalent at the Habsburg court (then the rulers over the Southern Netherlands) and in Antwerp generally).

They are a combination of familiar Western European garden plants such as carnations and columbines as well as exotic varieties from the Orient, including the pink damask rose and the tulip.