A unique seventeenth-century account of painting as it was practiced, taught, and discussed during a period of extraordinary artistic and intellectual ferment in the Netherlands.

Celeste Brusati is a professor emerita of art and the history of art at the University of Michigan. She has published articles and books on still-life painting, perspective, trompe l'oeil illusionism, and the relation between visual and textual discourses on art in the Netherlands.

Jaap Jacobs is an honorary reader at the University of St Andrews. He has published widely on the history of the Dutch Republic and its colonies during the early modern period.