PALAMEDESZ., Anthonie
(b. 1601, Delft, d. 1673, Amsterdam)

Company Dining and Making Music

1632
Oil on panel, 47 x 73 cm
Mauritshuis, The Hague

This painting depicts a gathering of thirteen expensively dressed young men and women who are enjoying the pleasure of eating, drinking, smoking, and making music in each other's company. As is often the case in Palamedesz's interiors, a group of people is crowded into the right half of the picture, leaving the space at the left almost empty. This imbalance is compensated by placing in the empty corner the figure of the servant boy dressed in red and pouring wine for the merrymakers.

This painting is strongly reminiscent of works with similar subject matter by artists active in northern Holland, such as Dirck Hals, Pieter Codde, Willem Duyster, and Hendrick Pot.