Musical Entertainment in the Park

Musical Entertainment in the Park once again takes up the theme of kindling love, popular among early-17th-century Dutch painters. As their gestures suggest, the ladies play an active part in flirting. The young woman on the left stretches her arm out to the gentleman seated in front of her. On the right, as the woman with her back to the viewer reaches for a wine-glass, she lightly brushes the young man’s hand. The matchmaker seated to his right is depicted with typical gesture and veiled in grey. In the spirit of “in the garden of feelings grow flowers, in the garden of desires grows fruit”, the fruit arranged on a stool may be interpreted as alluding to desire, enhancing the frivolous character of the scene.

DUCKE Astrid: Caption in exhibition "Natur wird Bild. Österreichische Barocklandschaften" (30.7.2021-31.1.2022).
Translation: Gail Schamberger MA, Salzburg