The painting shows the Archduke as a collector admiring a set of prints on a table. The table has been documented as a creation of the sculptor Adriaen de Vries depicting Ganymede. The artist himself is showing his patron an example of a print. The paintings are arranged in rows on a rear wall, and is one of the first that David Teniers the Younger prepared to document the Archduke's collection before he employed 12 engravers to publish his Theatrum Pictorium, considered the "first illustrated art catalog". He published this book of engravings after the Archduke had moved to Austria and taken his collection with him. It was published in Antwerp in 1659 and again in 1673.[2]
This painting was purchased for the museum's collection in 1873 from J. Nieuwenhuys in Brussels.
The following list is of the recognisable paintings of the collection, not all of which were included in the Italian catalog prepared by Teniers, which was a selection of 243 of the most prized paintings out of a collection of 1300-1400 pieces. Many are still in the Viennese collection. The list begins with the paintings on the rear wall, running from left to right and from top to bottom.
| image | article | painter | year | collection | inventory nr. | catalog code | | Lady with Long Hair | Palma Vecchio |
| Portrait of Jacopo Strada | Titian | 1567 | Kunsthistorisches Museum | GG_81 | [https://archive.org/stream/gri_33125009347911#page/n178/mode/1up 92] |
| Portrait of an unknown man | Titian | [https://archive.org/stream/gri_33125009347911#page/n110/mode/1up 55] |
| Judith with the head of Holofernes | Carlo Saraceni | 1613 | Kunsthistorisches Museum | GG_41 | [https://archive.org/stream/gri_33125009347911#page/n86/mode/1up 39] |
| The Death of Actaeon | Titian | 1559 | National Gallery | NG6420 | [https://archive.org/stream/gri_33125009347911#page/n142/mode/1up 73] |
| Danaë | Titian? | Different to any surviving version | GG_90 | [https://archive.org/stream/gri_33125009347911#page/n144/mode/1up 74] |
| The Three Philosophers | Giorgione | 1500s | Kunsthistorisches Museum | GG_111 | [https://archive.org/stream/gri_33125009347911#page/n48/mode/1up 20] |
| Descent from the Cross | Tintoretto | 1547 | Kunsthistorisches Museum | GG_1565 | [https://archive.org/stream/gri_33125009347911#page/n212/mode/1up 109] |
| Lamentation | Palma il Giovane | 1600s | Kunsthistorisches Museum | GG_2 |
| unknown |
| Aeneas Takes Leave of Dido | Andrea Schiavone | 1555 | Kunsthistorisches Museum | GG_5818 | [https://archive.org/stream/gri_33125009347911#page/n268/mode/1up 135] |
| Landscape |
| Saint Margaret and the Dragon | Raphael | 1518 | Kunsthistorisches Museum | GG_171 | [https://archive.org/stream/gri_33125009347911#page/n16/mode/1up 2] |
| Ascension? |
| Adoration of the Kings | Paolo Veronese | 1585 | Kunsthistorisches Museum | GG_1515 | [https://archive.org/stream/gri_33125009347911#page/n242/mode/1up 123] |
| Raising the Young Man of Nain | Paolo Veronese | 1560s | Kunsthistorisches Museum | GG_52 | [https://archive.org/stream/gri_33125009347911#page/n244/mode/1up 124] |
| Blind Leading the Blind | Domenico Fetti | 1620s | Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden | 644 | [https://archive.org/stream/gri_33125009347911#page/n424/mode/1up 215] |
| Pietà | Annibale Carracci | 1603 | Kunsthistorisches Museum | GG_230 | 40 |
| Shepherds and Sheep | one of the Bassani, whereabouts unknown, possibly Tenier's copy is shown | 1650s | Metropolitan Museum of Art | 89.15.22 |
| Unknown |
| Holy Family with Mary Magdalene | Palma Vecchio | 1520-1525 | Kunsthistorisches Museum | GG_2161 |
| Portrait of Cecilia Gozzadini | Parmigianino | 1530 | Kunsthistorisches Museum | GG_327 |
| Madonna and Child |
| Adoration of the Magi |
| St Dominic and St Ursula | Antonello da Messina (copy by David Teniers the Younger) | private collection |
| Scenes from the Life of Christ |
| Portrait of a man in a beret | Jan van Scorel or Maarten van Heemskerck | before 1575 | unknown |
| Portrait of a man |
| Marius Curius Dentatus | Andrea Schiavone | 1555/1560 | Kunsthistorisches Museum | GG_1568 |
1. ^[https://www.fine-arts-museum.be/nl/de-collectie/david-ii-teniers-aartshertog-leopold-willem-in-zijn-galerij-italiaanse-schilderijen Aartshertog Leopold Willem in zijn galerij Italiaanse schilderijen] in the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium collection
2. ^[https://archive.org/stream/gri_33125009347911 Online version] of the Theatrum Pictorium, 1673