Early in the 17th century Flemish painter Jan Brueghel the Elder (1568-1625) pioneered the floral still life (as above). One of Brueghel's apprentices was Daniel Seghers (1590-1661), who also became a Jesuit and lived most of his life in an Antwerp monastery. Seghers made a specialty of the "floral garland" motif which Brueghel had originally invented. By the 1630s the garlands of Daniel Seghers were popular all across Europe. His paintings (as below) were not usually sold, but rather given by the Jesuit Order as gifts to royal and noble Catholic patrons.
Artists other than Seghers himself would usually be commissioned to provide images for the hollow spaces inside the master's painted garlands.
