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FRANS FRANCKEN III (Antwerp, Belgium, 1607 - 1667). "Banquet of the Rich Epulon". Oil on copper. The frame is missing. With restorations. Measurements: 27 x 36 cm; 40 x 49 cm (frame). Frans Francken III represents in this copper painting Epulon, a rich man who dressed in purple and fine linen and lived in luxury every day, eating an ostentatious banquet at the skirts of his castle. The scriptures tell that at his gate stood a beggar named Lazarus, depicted by Francken in the background, covered with sores, who longed to eat what fell from the rich man's table. Even the dogs came and licked his sores. The time came when the beggar died and the angels carried him to Abraham's side. The rich man also died and was buried. In Hades, where he was in torment, he looked up and saw Abraham in the distance, with Lazarus beside him. Then he cried out to him, Father Abraham, have mercy on me and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I am in agony in this fire. But Abraham answered, Son, remember that in your life you received your good things, while Lazarus received bad things, but now he is comforted here and you are in agony. And besides all this, between us and you there is a great gulf. He answered, "Then I beg you, father, send Lazarus to my family, for I have five brothers. Let him warn them, lest they also come to this place of torment". Abraham replied, "They have Moses and the prophets; let them listen to them." "No, father Abraham,' he said, 'but if anyone from among the dead goes to them, they will repent. He said to him: If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be convinced, even if someone rises from the dead." The son of Frans Francken II, Frans Francken III was the last member of the important family of painters of this surname. After completing his training he joined the Guild of Saint Luke in Antwerp, his native city, in 1639 and became dean of this institution in 1656, a post he held for a year. Francken III developed an oeuvre that was heir to that of his father and in fact his paintings are often confused due to the fact that they both used the same signature. His oeuvre reveals the influence of Jan Brueghel de Velours and his predecessors in the Francken family, as well as debts to Mannerism and 16th-century painting, evident both in the structure of the compositions and in the rhythm and expression of the figures. Furthermore, as in his father's work, his figures include evident allusions to the work of Italian artists such as Raphael, Veronese and Zuccaro. However, his son's works are characterised by a less emphatic manner and a softer execution than those of Francken II. The reuse of specific motifs from the father's paintings is frequent in the son's work, and he also borrowed from a number of Dutch works. His principal works are based on the incorporation of figures in the paintings of Flemish church interiors by Ludovicus Neefs, of which the two paintings in the Museo del Prado, executed around 1646, are a brilliant example. Frans Francken III was the teacher of Carstian Luyckx and Jan Baptist Segaert. He is now represented in the Museo del Prado, the Royal Belgian Museum of Fine Arts, the Museum voor Schone Kunsten in Doornik (Belgium), the Residenzgalerie in Salzburg and other important museums and collections.