Art in Art: Cabinets of Curiosity and the Rise of the Gallery Painting

In the 17th century, emanating from Antwerp, a new genre of artwork came on the scene: paintings of paintings, works populated by a lush array of meta-images.

From its origins in picturing private curiosity cabinets to its later use in documenting increasingly public collections, Thea Applebaum Licht charts the course of this alluring aesthetic tradition. ...