Circle of Hendrik Goltzius (Bruges 1558–1617 Haarlem) The Table of Cebes, oil on canvas, 106 x 195.5 cm, framed Provenance: Private collection, France, 2020; where bought by the present owner This composition and the painting by Joseph Plepp (1595–1642) in the Kunstmuseum Bern are after the same Jacob Matham engraving, from a Goltzius design. It shows the Table of Cebes or Tabula Cebetis (erroneously ascribed to a Theban contemporary of Plato). It shows the pitfalls that can befall a young man on the path to enlightenment (usually depicted with three concentric walls) along with the virtues and learning he may encounter along the way. This subject was also engraved by Hans Holbein among others and was popular from the fifteenth to eighteenth centuries.