"In the 17th century, emanating from Antwerp, a new genre of artwork came on the scene: paintings of paintings, works populated by a lush array of meta-images.
From its origins in picturing private curiosity cabinets to its later use in documenting increasingly public collections, Thea Applebaum Licht charts the course of this alluring aesthetic tradition."
https://publicdomainreview.org/essay/cabinets-of-curiosity-and-the-rise-of-the-gallery-painting/