A trompe l’oeil with an etching of an allegory of Air after Hendrick Goltzius on blue paper, letters, pamphlets, a quill, and a pair of glasses held by red ribbons and pins to a wooden board

Among the earliest specialists in trompe l'oeil painting, Andrea Gottardo Domenico Remps is perhaps best known for the illusionistic effects in his painting, Cabinet of curiosities (with glass doors) with various objects, Museo Dell'Opificio Delle Pietre Dure, Florence, which is dedicated to Francesco de' Medici (1663-1713). Scant details of Remps' life and artistic training are known today, but it is generally accepted that he was of Flemish origin, and may have been associated with Cornelius Norbertus and Franciscus Gysbrechts, who also took up the 'cabinet of curiosities' as a trompe l'oeil theme.