Jan Steen arranges the various actors in a small room with a window and low ceiling. Crammed. Composition is based on a triangle, with the magnificently dressed young woman at its top point. The focus of the scene is provided by the lady of the house, who has fallen asleep at the table on the left. The dog is finishing the meat pie that was served on the table, one of the children is filching something from the cabinet on the wall (“opportunity makes the thief ”), the little girl’s brother is trying out a pipe, and the youngest child, sitting in his highchair, is playing carelessly with a string of pearls. His attention diverted to the side, a young man is trying to play a violin. The duck on the shoulder of the man next to her identifies him as a Quaker, who urges the reading of pious texts. Finally, the pig in the doorway to the kitchen is an allusion to another proverb: “Neither cast ye your pearls before swine”. Hanging above the heads of these sinners are the symbols of the penalty to be expected for unbridled, lustful behaviour: a sword and a crutch in a basket suspended from the ceiling. 50mm. f8.0