The Seduction

An elegantly-dressed man makes an advance on a young maiden, who seems to reject him with a coquettish giggle. Her clothes suggest that she is poor, her pearl earrings probably a present from her suitor. On her left, an old woman, possibly a procuress, watches the exchange encouragingly. Traversi's presentation of the scene, with a strong contrast of light and shadow, is indebted to seventeenth-century painting, but the subject is light, playful and amorous, as if taken from a comedy, with exaggerated theatrical gestures and expressions.