This enormous canvas features a wooded coastal landscape, the setting for hunting activities, seen through an opening which serves as a display shelf for dead game. The artist’s skills in rendering different materials and textures, and animate and inanimate forms (including the statue of Pan, the ancient god of the woods), is clearly evident. The dogs provide the clue to the painting’s allegorical theme, which is the sense of smell. It was one of five works (each representing a sense) forming a grand decorative scheme in the Amsterdam house of a wealthy Portuguese patron.