Lancelot Volders

In older literature, the artist was also mistakenly referred to as Jan Volders as the result of an incorrect reading of his signature.

He was registered on 8 April 1650 at the Brussels Guild of St Luke as a pupil of Pieter van Ghindertaelen, a popular artist at the time.

He is also said to have been a pupil of Gaspard de Crayer, a prominent portrait and history painters originally from Antwerp.

[5] It is not entirely clear whether Volders stayed in Brussels and painted the members of the Stadholder family there (for example Johan Willem Friso in 1707) or traveled to and resided in Leeuwarden for that purpose.

In Leeuwarden itself no traces of his residence are found, except for a "Volders room" mentioned in an inventory of the court of the Stadtholder.

The work is traditionally believed to represent seven city magistrates of Leuven gathered around a table presenting the bills.

[6] The prominent Brussels painter Victor Honoré Janssens was a pupil of Lancelot Volders for eight years starting from 1676.

[3] Lancelot Volders was a specialist portrait painter but also created history paintings and genre scenes.

A bed shown on the right-hand side of the composition corroborates the interpretation that this is a scene of courtesans and not of bourgeois ladies.