"Sweerts depicts himself with the implements of his craft. His elegant garb, and particularly the emphasis on the aristocratic, tapering hand holding the paintbrush, also recalls the portraits of artists in Anthony van Dyck’s Iconography. The message is one of self-control and inner order and harmony, a virtuoso ideal combining aristocratic bearing, intellect and prestige." (http://books0977.tumblr.com/page/7)