The old Folks sing, the young Folks chirp

In this merry domestic scene, the grandparents are singing from a songbook, while the father blows his bagpipes. The young ones are doing their best, too. The baby girl on mother's lap is blowing on the flute of her rattle and her brother is playing a recorder. In the cartouche above can be seen the proverb that appears in the Emblemata of Jacob Cats, Spiegel van den ouden en nieuwen tijdt (Mirror of Old and New Times, 1632): the young imitate the old. The old man is probably Adam Van Noort, master and father-in-law of Jacob Jordaens. Jordaens himself is probably the man playing the bagpipes.