BRONCHORST, Jan Gerritsz van
(b. 1603, Utrecht, d. 1661, Amsterdam)

Sleeping Nymph and Shepherd

1645-50
Oil on canvas, 85 x 116 cm
Herzog Anton Ulrich-Museum, Braunschweig

This painting is an almost pornographic portrayal of a young man spying on a naked woman with his thumb extended between his index and middle fingers in a gesture that signifies copulation. The nude is portrayed on a beautifully draped cloth against a shadowy background of rocks and trees. It was apparently not the artist's intention to illustrate a theme along the lines of Venus and Adonis or Jupiter and Antiope, for instance, but simply to paint a picture with no specific subject in mind.