Travel Pouch and Documents on a Table

As a student in Rome in the early 1620s, Bor associated with Dutch painters of lively genre scenes. He returned to his native Amersfoort by 1626, after which time his work reflects his connections with the Utrecht Caravaggisti. Born to a prosperous Catholic family of textile merchants and not dependent on painting for his livelihood, Bor was free to paint atypical subjects, like this still life. A worn ledger, pouch and other travel implements are arranged on a strangely angled table. The picture depicts the play of light and surface textures so well that one can almost smell the musty hides. The spider and flies — perhaps metaphorical — add an enlivening detail.