Paintings crowd the walls. Works of sculpture, antiquities, and musical instru-ments share the space with a globe, maps, and exotic warm-water shells. The table by the windows at left displays an early version of the barometer, a device renowned in the seventeenth century as a perpetual motion machine.
I find these types of konstkamer paintings very interesting. They seem to me to essentially be a vehicle in which the patron can show off his or her wealth, status, education level and so forth. However, where would a konstkamer painting be placed to serve its purpose as a bit of a "bragging" method? The article discusses how the viewer would easily be able to understand by looking at the painting that it's patron was wealthy, and cultured given the art collection they owned. However, who was the paintings intended audience? If the painting was just hung in the home, as I assume it would have been given these painting were private commission, how could they possible serve their purpose? Were they just paintings made solely for the the patrons viewing pleasure?