This party of fashionably dressed young people is interrupted by intruders with masks and a lighted torch suggesting that these revels take place during carnival. Well-bred young ladies did not join parties in public inns; these smiling women are prostitutes. Women forced by poverty into prostitution had to rent such garments, as they themselves were rented. The lap dog gnawing a bone adds a crude but amusing counterpoint to the apparent elegance of the scene. Date: between 1630 and 1639 (Baroque). Place of creation: Antwerp, Belgium. Dimensions: height: 45.2 cm (17.7 in); width: 67.2 cm (26.4 in). Medium: oil on copper. Collection: Walters Art Museum. Simon de Vos - Merrymakers in an Inn - Walters 371741
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