The central panel on this elaborate micro-mosaic table top is almost certainly after a painting by the Dutch artist Frans Snyders (d.1657). A painter of still lifes, animals and hunting scenes, Snyders was a pupil of Pieter Brueghel II and Hendrik van Belen I. An internationally acclaimed artist, he received commissions from King Philip IV of Spain in 1636/37 and Archduke Leopold Wilhelm of Austria in 1649. He often collaborated with Rubens but developed his own style after the 1630's, charaterized by a lively manner worked in rich colors. Closely related paintings by Snyders depicting mastifs attacking a boar are currently in major public collections such as the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, the Royal Collection at Kensington Palace, London and the Uffizi in Florence.