STEEN, Jan
(b. 1626, Leiden, d. 1679, Leiden)

In Luxury, Beware (detail)

1663
Oil on canvas
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

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. In this detail, the little monkey stopping the clock at the upper right recalls the moral "In dwaasheid vergeet men de tijd" (In foolishness time is forgotten).