Focus on this artwork and explain the A gallery painting.
The painting falls in the genre of the gallery paintings.  Gallery paintings depict large rooms in which many paintings and other precious items are displayed in elegant surroundings.  The earliest works in this genre depicted art objects together with other items such as scientific instruments or peculiar natural specimens.  Frans Francken the Younger and Jan Brueghel the Elder started the genre by creating paintings of art and curiosity collections in the 1620s. Some gallery paintings include portraits of the owners or collectors of the art objects or artists at work.  The genre became immediately quite popular and was followed by other artists such as Jan Brueghel the Younger, Cornelis de Baellieur, Hans Jordaens, David Teniers the Younger, Gillis van Tilborch and Hieronymus Janssens.A number of gallery paintings have traditionally been attributed to van Stalbemt.  This includes the composition The Sciences and the Arts discussed here and its reduced replica of the lower right hand corner called The Geographer and the Naturalist (also in the Prado).  A Collector's Cabinet, which is similar to the paintings in the Prado, was sold at Sotheby's on 9 July 2014 as lot 57.  Most art historians now appear to agree that these works should be attributed to Hieronymus Francken II as van Stalbemt's figures differ from those in these gallery paintings. The staffage in all of the gallery interiors is now seen as most probably the work of as yet unidentified figure painters.  Other gallery paintings that were formerly attributed to van Stalbemt have also been re-attributed to Hieronymus Francken II. Even so, some art historians still are of the view that van Stalbemt was also active in this genre.  For instance, some art historians still see the hand of van Stalbemt in one of the best known gallery pictures - The Archdukes Albert and Isabella Visiting a Collector's Cabinet (collection of The Walters Art Museum in Baltimore, Maryland).
Prado Maryland The Sciences and the Arts Hans Jordaens Walters Art Museum David Teniers the Younger The Archdukes Albert and Isabella Visiting a Collector's Cabinet A Collector's Cabinet Hieronymus Francken II The Geographer and the Naturalist Baltimore The Walters Art Museum Cornelis de Baellieur Sotheby's Gillis van Tilborch Hieronymus Janssens Frans Francken the Younger