Hendrick Sorgh, 'Two Lovers at Table', 1644

It is clear who is in charge in this picture. A love-struck man stares lustfully at a young woman, lost in reverie. She in turn meets our eyes with a knowing smile, holding his chin with her left hand, a look and a gesture which clearly underline her sense of power over him. If we were in any doubt about the situation, we need only peer into the gloom at the back of the room. The old lady looking in at the door is a brothel keeper.

The artist’s message? Here is a man who, by succumbing to erotic temptation, is being exploited by women. But it is probably wrong to see this simply as a judgemental painting warning against lust and, perhaps, the disabling effects of alcohol. There is too much knowing humour in the scene for this to be the case. Dutch painters and patrons took great pleasure in sophisticated and obscene double entendres. The vertical thrust of the wine glass in the man’s hand, not far from his groin, and the flask with its open neck, just beneath the woman’s seat, would have been interpreted by many viewers as sexual references. The slant-eyed cat which has slunk under the table was also a traditional metaphor for female sensuality.

The story is complicated because this is one of a pair of small parlour paintings by Sorgh, who specialised in depicting peasants in such situations; the other, A Woman Playing Cards with Two Peasants, is also in the National Gallery. The paintings are the same size; both were probably originally rectangular but have been shaped into ovals at a later date. They have a similar setting, probably an inn, and a cast of three. In the card-playing scene, however, there is one woman and two men – the woman is winning a card game against one of the men and reaching for her winnings, while the other man looks on with amusement. Depending on the way you interpret the scene, it either reinforces the idea that women make fools of men, or presents the opposite view.

Both paintings are more than amusing moralistic scenes, however. They also incorporate a still life composition – another popular genre of the time. In Two Lovers at Table, it is particularly pronounced and includes classic elements used by painters to demonstrate their skill at rendering different textures and materials. Here the glistening pewter, the crusty roll on the folds of the table cloth, the two glasses and the apples on a china plate form a beautifully composed sideshow to the seduction going on around them.