The Children of the Planet Mercury

Glorification of trade and science. Landscape with a ruin near a city on the coast. In the middle three children are busy reading and writing, in front of them lie stacks of books and geometric instruments on the ground. Left two foxes peek at a group of monkeys busy with alchemy. In the workspace left a group of scientists bend over a table with a globe, against the wall stands a bookcase. On a pillar at the entrance hangs a clock. Right in the foreground two monkeys sit by a group of objects referring to pleasure and entertainment: musical instruments, playing cards, glasses with wine, a tric-trac game, masks, swords, a music book and the torso of a statue. In the background dancing comedians and audience gathered for a play performed outside a village. Through the air drives the triumphal chariot of Mercury drawn by four roosters. In front of it fly all kinds of birds, including a parrot and a cockatoo. From the chariot a monkey scatters musical instruments, dice, masks, cards etc.