The Music Party

One of the great masters of seventeenth-century Dutch scenes of everyday life, or “genre painting,” Gerard ter Borch created small-scale works characterized by a rich treatment of fabrics and the subtle drama played out by the figures. In "The Music Party," a young lady ignores the glances of a young man with whom she sings.

Scenes that appear to be innocent today, however, were often charged with moral lessons and symbolic meanings that would have been immediately understood in the seventeenth-century Dutch Republic. A music lesson not only symbolized the balance and harmony necessary for order in the world, but could also have amorous connotations reflecting the harmonious union of a man and a woman in a healthy love relationship. A sexually titillating interpretation of the picture is supported by the fact that the young woman, although dressed in a luxurious yellow satin gown, is not wearing the modest kerchief that typically would have covered her shoulders and bosom. Such a shawl was a standard part of a refined lady’s wardrobe. Her admirer’s ardent gaze, directed at her décolletage, leaves little doubt as to the interpretation ter Borch intended.