Joachim Anthonisz Wtewael  (1566 – 1638),

was a Dutch Mannerist painter and draughtsman, as well as a highly successful flax merchant, and town councillor of Utrecht. In some works he also revived the kitchen scene subjects of Pieter Aertsen from a half century before. His best known work, and almost his largest, is the near life-size Perseus and Andromeda in the Louvre. Producing his highly finished small paintings was probably not very economic, and he was not short of money; his own pleasure and fame were probably his main motivations. His granddaughter still owned 30 of his paintings in 1669. The displayed painting is a crop from: Mars and Venus Surprised by Vulcan 1604-08.