do paintings within paintings reveal hidden messages

Under the bed is a chamber pot, pictured next to her stocking. Is still and resting between bouts of excitement. The bed is a dog, a Spaniel, normally one of the liveliest breeds, but now it In earlier passion, showing a lack of concern for propriety and orderliness. Her shoes are scattered across the floor, perhaps thrown off

The woman pulls on her stocking, regaining her respectability and modesty, but too hurried a manoeuvre could ladder the garment rendering it useless – symbolising a ruinous end to impetuous and hasty actions. The implication here is that she is a woman of loose morals, perhaps a prostitute, preparing herself for her next customer. The picture (or the artist) is talking to you personally. Her bed is unmade, alluding to prior activity, and she stares alluringly out at the viewer, her eyes looking directly out of the picture at you, and therefore you are involved in this scene. Her fur-edged bed jacket gapes open revealing her undergarments. If we start with the woman herself, she leans forward to pull on a stocking which may have only been removed a few moments ago, since a garter mark can still be seen on her calf. But why would Steen paint such a scene? Well, we need to ‘read’ the painting to reveal the clues to the message that Steen was sending us – a message which can still mean much to us today. At first sight this looks like a rather dull picture of a woman sitting on a bed in a grand but messy bedroom – a snapshot of a moment in a woman’s life 400 years ago. In this instance the word ‘toilet’ means the process of washing oneself, dressing, and attending to one’s appearance.

Do paintings within paintings reveal hidden messages