[2] Francken often collaborated with other artists, adding figures and narrative elements to scenes created by specialists in landscape, architectural and floral still life paintings.

His father was a pupil of Antwerp's leading history painter Frans Floris and one of the most important creators of altar pieces of his time in Flanders.

[3] Frans Francken the Younger likely first worked in the family workshop before he became an independent master in the Antwerp Guild of Saint Luke in 1605.

[3] Francken specialized in painting the human figure, which is suggested by etched and engraved portraits of the artist made by Anthony van Dyck (after Peter Paul Rubens) that identify him by the Latin inscription: 'ANTVERIÆ PICTOR HVMANARVM FIGVRARVM' (Figure painter of Antwerp).

[9] He was frequently invited to contribute figures in compositions by other artists, such as the landscape artists Tobias Verhaecht, Abraham Govaerts and Joos de Momper, the architectural painters Pieter Neeffs the Elder, Pieter Neeffs the Younger, Hendrik van Steenwijk I, Paul Vredeman de Vries and Bartholomeus van Bassen and flower painters such as Jan Brueghel the Elder and Andries Daniels.

[3] Francken created many allegorical paintings including Allegory on the Abdication of Emperor Charles V in Brussels (Rijksmuseum).

The scene shows Charles V dividing his empire after a life of continuous warfare and ill health, seated on his throne flanked by his successors Ferdinand I and Philip II.

On the left, Neptune is riding his seahorse-drawn triumphal chariot, accompanied by mermen, mermaids and tritons.

[10] Another allegorical painting is the composition Mankind's Eternal Dilemma: The Choice Between Virtue and Vice (on loan to the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

It presents the eternal choice of mankind between virtue and vice and depicts the three regions of heaven, earth and hell.

The earliest works in this genre depicted art objects together with other items such as scientific instruments or peculiar natural specimens.

Some gallery paintings include portraits of the owners or collectors of the art objects or artists at work.

The paintings are heavy with symbolism and allegory and are a reflection of the intellectual preoccupations of the age, including the cultivation of personal virtue and the importance of connoisseurship.

[16] Frans Francken often collaborated with still life specialists such as Andries Daniels, Jan Brueghel the Elder and Younger and Philips de Marlier in the production of garland paintings.

Each grisaille scene has its own naturalistic perspective and as a result the compositions provide an odd mixture of three-dimensional naturalism and archaic flatness.

In the centre of the composition Francken depicts the scene of the prodigal son during his wild, high-living days in which he squandered his inheritance.