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. 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 himself.