A man offers gold coins and jewellery to woman lying on a bed – a carving of Cupid, the god of erotic love, on the bedpost in the foreground removes any doubt that it is an amorous encounter. The glass of wine would also have been associated with licentious behaviour. Whether this is a transaction taking place in a brothel or a gift from an enamoured lover is not explicit, but the coins strongly imply that it’s a commercial exchange.
Schalcken often painted candlelit scenes and here the warm glow casts the woman in a flattering light and emphasises the softness of the pillow behind her. But it also highlights some hard, worldly realities: the gold glittering in the man’s hand, the pearls of the woman’s necklace – an expensive piece of jewellery – and the costly gold braid on her dress.
A man offers gold coins and jewellery to woman lying on a bed – a carving of Cupid on the bedpost in the foreground removes any doubt that it is an amorous encounter. The glass of wine would also have been associated with licentious behaviour, especially in the hand of a woman. Whether this is a transaction taking place in a brothel or a gift from an enamoured lover is not explicit, but the coins strongly imply that it’s a commercial exchange.
As is often the case in Dutch paintings of this nature, the composition suggests that even though it is the man who is paying, it’s the woman who is in control and who knows how to exploit the weakness of men. He adopts the pose of a supplicant, his hands full of an offering of gold coins and jewellery, and looks up adoringly into her eyes, a dreamy, slack-jawed expression on his face. She looks down on him with a knowing gaze as she reaches for her payment.
The lighting also makes it clear that the woman is the centre of attention. She is bathed in the flattering glow of the candle, which also emphasises the softness of the pillow behind her. By creating a mood of warm intimacy, the candlelight softens the transactional nature of the scene. Perhaps too, the candle echoes the state of mind of the woman’s customer. The heat from the flame has softened the wax so that it has started to buckle, and Schalcken has accentuated this sense of malleability with the curving shape of the flame and the brass candle holder.
But while the light may create an indulgent and forgiving atmosphere, it also highlights some hard, worldly realities: the gold glittering in the man’s hand, the costly gold braid on the woman’s dress, the pearls of her necklace – an expensive piece of jewellery – and the gleam of the wine glass. These are worldly rewards of indulging the softness and warmth of the flesh. Schalcken’s customers certainly would not have approved of prostitution or the rewards implied here, but given the popularity of paintings which explored the tensions between illicit pleasure and moral integrity, many were fascinated by the subject. The National Gallery has another painting by Schalcken, Allegory of Virtue and Riches, which explores the theme in a rather different way.
Schalcken was taught by Gerrit Dou and he specialised in small highly finished paintings like this, which is only about half the size of a piece of A4 paper. He often painted candlelit scenes, with the flame used as a prominent feature in the foreground.
