 The paintings are heavy with symbolism and allegory and are a reflection of the intellectual preoccupations of the age, including the cultivation of personal virtue and the importance of connoisseurship.Van Tilborgh’s master Teniers played an important role in the development of the genre and his mid 17th century gallery paintings of the collection of Archduke Leopold Wilhelm are among the most famous examples of the genre.Other painters practicing the genre around the time of van Tilborgh include Wilhelm Schubert van Ehrenberg, Hieronymus Janssens, Gonzales Coques, Jacob de Formentrou and Balthasar van den Bossche.