Merry Company

Dirck Hals made a name for himself as a specialist and key pioneer of the new genre of the conversation piece. The genre depicted gay companies of upper-class burghers, musical entertainment or drinking bouts, in part with amorous allusions. At the beginning of the Golden Age, this genre evolved in the Netherlands, visualizing the prosperity and self-confidence of the burghers. In this painting, the three fashionably clad couples likewise parade as if on stage, surrounded by landscape Paintings and musical instruments as attributes of wealth. The emphasis is less on the actions of the individual characters and more on the poses and the exhibitionism. The demonstratively upbeat mood should not, however, simply be read as pure affirmation or superficiality, as the flowers and shells in the foreground can be read as vanitas motifs. (Kathrin DuBois)