"In weelde siet toe" (In Luxury, Beware)

The complex, multi-figure composition probably represents several proverbs the meaning of them is not completely known. Although the scene depicted here in many respects recalls the unruly "household of Jan Steen" - images painted by Steen that purportedly reflect his own life and household - its content is far more complex. It is true that the depiction contains scores of references to the "dissolute household", a motif that Steen embroidered on countless paintings, yet quite correctly the picture once was called a proverb painting.

The idea of proverb painting recalls the famous one by Pieter Bruegel the Elder. Steen presumably knew this painting or one of its copies by his son. It is also possible that Steen relied on a print with a collection of proverbs.