Gabriel Metsu, A Woman seated at a Table and a Man tuning a Violin

Metsu has highlighted the woman seated at the table – light from the high window falls on her bright red bodice – to confirm her as the centre of our attention. She has a dreamy expression on her face and she seems to be looking up at a mirror propped on the window sill. She certainly doesn’t appear to be concentrating on the musical scores resting on her lap and on the table in front of her.

But perhaps she is memorising a phrase from the music, or singing softly to herself: her lips are slightly parted. Her companion or teacher tunes his violin in the background, while catching our eye with an inscrutable stare. It isn’t clear whether the viola da gamba, the instrument which lies on the table, belongs to her, or whether a third musician is about to join them.

The role of the violinist is at the heart of how this painting would have been understood 400 years ago. Such scenes of couples or small groups of people making music, or of a teacher and pupil, were a common subjects in Dutch seventeenth-century painting. They reflected a popular activity in sophisticated society and as such might symbolise the harmony of family life or friendship groups. But musical harmonies resonating together were also associated with romance – and sex. So the image of a man tuning his instrument in preparation for a duet probably had obvious erotic overtones, or at least hinted at romantic interest.

Metsu has given the encounter a relatively grand setting, which was common in this kind of painting. The fireplace – with a carved figure of Atlas holding up the mantelpiece – would have been associated with a wealthy household, and the large painting in the background has an impressive frame.

Though pictures such as this seem to depict a natural moment between two people in a real room, they were nearly always highly contrived. Art buyers in the seventeenth century were more interested in types of situations than in a record of something that actually happened. Certain elements such as fireplaces, chairs, poses, models and dogs would often appear in several paintings by the same artist. We can see this by looking at another painting by Metsu, Young Woman seated drawing. He uses a similar colour scheme, the woman’s pose is very similar and she wears the same pinkish skirt, with a gold trim around the hem.