Jan Steen, A Peasant Family at Meal-time ('Grace before Meat')

In a quiet, dark room, a little girl folds her hands to say grace. She looks straight ahead as she has been taught to do when at prayer by her mother – her gaze is fixed so that nothing can tempt her away from her devotions. Emblem books and instruction from the church laid emphasis on the importance of the family in the teaching of morals and guiding the spirit of the child to the right path – for a girl, marriage, motherhood and the family. This was best done, it was thought, at the family table when food was served.

The little girl’s brother stands behind her, his hands beneath his wide-brimmed hat; perhaps they are folded too, ready to pray. He looks out at us, inviting us to see them as an example of the pious family, content with their lot however humble. The father sits in the shadows, cutting a loaf of black rye bread, the door open behind him. The family isn‘t wealthy. The single toy is a home-made sailboat built from the wooden sole of a shoe. The food is sparse. The earthenware soup tureen hardly holds enough to feed a family of four – but grace must be said in gratitude for what little they have. The mother stirs the tureen, her eyes lowered modestly, intent on her task. She’s neat and clean. A shaft of light from an unseen window catches the white of her shift and her bonnet, her hair tucked out of sight, as one day the little girl’s fair curls will be tamed and held captive too.

So here is an orderly, devout household, the adults training the children in godly ways – until you come to the dog. Typically, a dog licking a bowl on a kitchen floor in a painting of this period was a sign that all wasn’t well in the family – that it was slovenly and therefore probably immoral. Another reading of the image is that the little girl isn‘t thinking of her prayers but that her gaze is fastened on the soup. The boy’s hands aren’t folded beneath the hat, he isn‘t about to join the prayers, he’s simply staring. Neither parent looks to see if the children are doing their duty. They simply get on with putting the food on the table. In that case the dog stands for the dark side.

But if the first reading is correct, the dog is simply a warning of what can go wrong if children aren’t properly brought up, that they are naturally wicked unless educated and disciplined properly. The picture gives you the choice.

Jan Steen’s paintings epitomise the two sides of Dutch ideas of behaviour in the mid-seventeenth century. Steen kept an inn as well as being a popular and successful artist, so had the chance to observe a broad spectrum of humanity at close quarters. Many of his paintings take us into a colourful, funny, bawdy world, apparently to make an example of bad behaviour but also to make us laugh. He also shows us the gentle, inspiring life led by the good and faithful family, bringing up their children well in adversity with only the occasional dog to give us cause to wonder.