A floral wreath containing the figures of the Virgin Mary and St. Elizabeth, and Christ and John the Baptist as young boys.
      The wreath is made from a variety of flowers: tulips, forget-me-nots, roses, irises, lilies-of-the-valley, peonies, magnolias and jasmine.
 

      The picture is an oil-painting on wood.
On the back, in pencil: Franz Frank.... und Bluhmen Breughel And an oval wax seal, brown in colour, depicting a man’s profile in a laurel wreath.
      The painting is attributed to Jan Breughel, known as Velvet, and Franz Francken II., a friend of his with whom he collaborated in creating certain of his works, or to one of the artists associated with Breughel’s studio.
      Both of these artists lived and worked in Antwerp in the second half of the 16th century. Breughel earned his nickname Velvet by the soft, mild colour schemes he used in his works.
      Bands of flowers and garlands surrounding religious scenes became extraordinarily popular in the 17th century. They were generally depicted in paintings as garden flowers interwoven with branches of flowering wild roses and small forest fruits, with the whole rounded off with butterflies and insects. One of the experts in creating this form of painting was a pupil of Velvet Jan Breughel, Daniel Seghers.