Festive Company in a Renaissance Room

At first sight this is a festive scene – the partygoers play, eat and make music. But the painting has a double meaning; it warns against licentious behaviour and calls for moderation and chastity.
In the centre men and women sit around a table bearing a large dish of oysters. Oysters stood for luxury and abundance, and they also had an erotic symbolism. But caution is advised here, as the backgammon game being played on the left tells us. Because the tide can turn; at one moment it seems that you will win and the very next you have lost. So it can be with wealth – and love, which is fickle.
Music, too, had a symbolic meaning in the seventeenth century. When making music it is important to keep a measured beat. In the seventeenth century people making music in paintings were often a call to moderation.
This painting is a joint production by Dirck van Delen and Dirck Hals. Van Delen painted the Renaissance interior and Hals the figures.