copy sold London, Phillips, 27 February 1990, lot 18.

Based on an anonymous kunstkammer painting now in Warsaw in which this picture appears, it has been suggested that the original was purchased by Prince (later King) Vladislaus Sigismundas Vasa who was travelling in the Low Countries around 1624. This evidence is far from secure but the connection is plausible. For documentation of the Prince's purchases of paintings from Jan see Szmydki 2000.

Unusual among Jan's flower garlands in that the garland is completely floating in space, not anchored to the ground or to any kind of landscape. Could be tied to what appears to be the iconography here: the Virgin of the Immaculate Conception (on the crescent moon, before the sun). But in a private communication, James Clifton says that the iconography here is not necessarily that of the Immaculate Conception, which was still under debate in the 1620s (supported by the Jesuits and Franciscans, rejected by the Dominicans). Apocalyptic Woman imagery was applied to the Immaculate Conception but was used in other contexts too. Clifton notes that the Virgin-on-the-Moon imagery was used for the so-called Virgin of Antwerp, who stands on a crescent moon. Also anomalous is that in this painting, the Christ child is holding Eucharistic symbols.