Young Woman Sleeping

Baroque theories on art regarded genre pictures, which drew their subject matters from everyday life inferior to paintings with biblical or mythological subjects, which rendered sophisticated ideas. In spite of this, the art category disseminated, and not exclusively in the bourgeois Holland, often justifying its own existence with a moralising message. We do not know if the painter of this particular picture intended to add this kind of significance to his work or not; from the smile in sleep we can conclude that this is a very early rendition of the romantic theme of the amorous girl's dream. The unknown master, close in style to the French Claude Vignon, enlivened not only the beautiful girl's face but also the still life details with painterly virtuosity.